Apple tree grafting

[greyphase]

Any apple tree grafters on here? I started grafting several years ago and it has developed into an enjoyable hobby. I taught myself by watching YouTube video's and have had a 75% to 85% success ratio. Hundreds of varieties of apple scion wood is available from various sources on the internet. Here's a pic from last summer of my trees I grafted last spring.

My old setter Hattie with one of nicest trees a Red Limbertwig.

[redarrow]

What do you use for for wax?
I plan on grafting some this year.
Do you ever cut your own scions?

[wentzler]

Redarrow,

Grew up in the orchard budness One winter my sister, my dad, and myself...whip grafted rootstocks, and doubled on some with a second scion whip graft above it. We did...76,000 pcs. Honest. Our survival rate was close to 95 %. Honest, thank goodness fer cheap sawdust back then .:

ed

[greyphase]

Feb 4, 2015 19:49:20 GMT -5 redarrow said:

What do you use for for wax?
I plan on grafting some this year.
Do you ever cut your own scions?

I've been using Parafilm to wrap the graft and then dipping the scion in gulf wax. Some guys use electrical tape to wrap the graft and then cut it off in a couple of months. You can also use toilet bowl wax from the hardware store. You just need to keep the graft from drying out.

Yes I have used scion from an old tree in my pasture. Although not an eating apple it's apples hang on until the end of Jan-Feb. making a lot of food for the wildlife when they need it most.

Good luck with your grafts. It's a rewarding hobby and YouTube can be very helpful.

Rick

Allegheny Mountain Wanderings

[greyphase]

Feb 4, 2015 22:14:38 GMT -5 wentzler said:

Redarrow,

Grew up in the orchard budness One winter my sister, my dad, and myself...whip grafted rootstocks, and doubled on some with a second scion whip graft above it. We did...76,000 pcs. Honest. Our survival rate was close to 95 %. Honest, thank goodness fer cheap sawdust back then .:

ed

Ed

How many band aids did you use .  I'm not coordinated enough to use the whip graft , but I've had good success with the cleft graft.

Rick

[wentzler]

Rick,

We used a lot more tape than band aids. We were pretty careful with the knives..but needed all the help we could get with cracked fingertips. We used budding bands to do the wraps, found a source of them a bit heavier & wider than the budding bands we used for mid-summer budding, as we were pretty sure the thinner bands wouldn't endure the two to three month period in damp sawdust under refrigeration. (the first 'wetting' also contained some gyberilins to promote cell growth within the cut unions.) I don't remember where Dad found the knives, but they had very thin short blades shaped much like the 'clip' blade on my Schrade pocket knives (still my favorite pocket tool). After we customized the skinny handles for each of us they were pretty slick for whip grafting.

We also did a lot of 'budding' grafts in the field. That, gets old in a hurry, as it's best done bent at the waist, over top the established growing stock, working basically, upside down. At spacing 8 to 10 inches apart a long 'row'...is a very, very LONG row There'd be two of us grafting and two wrapping, and we'd switch off to give some back relief..but that didn't work so well for me as I also wrapped better upside down. The last big batch of budding we did was peach trees..and by that time someone had 'invented' a latex 'patch' that you'd stick a wire pin through the two ends on the back side of the bud incision. Thusly, one 'closer' could keep up with three budders.

But the same length rows were still intolerably long

And... if our budding efforts ran into later July..we often got to pick peaches and get covered with peach fuzz..before we got to go stand bent over in the July afternoon sun

Very interesting to see a thread on grafting here

[redarrow]

I order some grafting wax tape on line. Can it be left in place and not damage the tree?

[greyphase]

 Wentzler

I'm sure making a living off a nursery was a lot of hard work..........I'll keep my grafting a hobby .

[greyphase]

Redarrow

If you mean Parafilm tape yes it can be left on the graft and it will degrade with time.

[redarrow]

Thanks, greyphase.----I'm kind of excited about trying this.
I also want to try rooting some blueberry cutting if anyone has tips that might help.

This site can be a pretty good source of info from experienced guys. Thanks to all who share the wealth thumbsup

[wentzler]

That is the beauty of wax for most grafting. Can't use wax over budding though. Suffocates the bud. The latex just rotted off, just about the time the tissues had knit sufficiently for the bud to take Life.

Redarrow, if you're going to try rooting cuttings...

The closer to the growing tips you take your cuttings the more chance you have they will root. Blueberry, I'd do about 6" cuttings. Invest in some Root-tone at your local hardware store or garden center. Read the instructions and cautions carefully, pay attention the cautions, but with regard to the recommended 'mix', the math to do the reduction for what you'll need is tedious. Put a couple heaping tablespoons of the powder in a quart coffee can with about 2/3 of it full of water. Stir gently until dissolved. Soak your cuttings in the stuff for 48 hours, and then plant them to a potting soil mix real heavy on the water retaining stuff, avoid peat moss for rooting, it USES vast amounts h20 to break down. ( later in their life your b-berries will thrive in a heavier mix containing peat, as acidity is also a by-product, and b-berries are real sensitive in the 'bad' way to an even slighly alkaline environment.) If you can't be on the water almost hourly, use an open matrix bottom planting tray, and set it in a water tight tray that will hold an inch of water. That should get you through a day. I always have a couple pcs. of that cheap wood lattice you can pick up at Lowes or wherever for a couple bucks and use it to semi-shade the cuttings until they begin to grow earnestly on their own. (ya got to 'wean' them slowly then before full sun too) You definitely want to get started before the shrubs begin to grow in the spring. Coupla weeks shouild do it. If they start to grow, the forming leaf tissue will dessicate your stock before the new root hairs form.

FWIW, I've also rooted blueberries by merely taking my hormone soaked prospects up north with me, and just tucking them down in the duff, in about four inches of water along the edge of an old beaver pond

[redarrow]

What time of year do you take your cutting and soak them to get things started? I have several large plants that need pruning. Some of them bear lots of great tasting fruit, I don't know the variety, but we what to get a bunch more started.

[wentzler]

RA, you may take your cuttings anytime now (after full dormancy occurs late fall early winter. The caution above refers to 'too late' in the spring, you needing at least two weeks before temps start the juices flowing. Downside to this early, is you must have either refrigeration or some other controlled atmosphere, as you want to keep you stock right at 32-34 degrees until new roots start to form. You can keep a couple of your cuttings in the same environment as the rest, but in a small, clear container with the same 'mix' of rooting compound as mentioned above, the bottoms NOT against bottom of that container, so you can 'check' progress on occasion. The new root hairs will form first as little whitish 'bumps' on the bark layers right at the very bottom of your ctting, which BTW should be a square clean cut, not elliptical, or 'smooshed' by the anvil/blade action of your shears/pruners. I take the cuttings just a tad longer than tequired with my hand shears, then use that favorite clip blade on my Shrade PK to very cleaning slice through them at that 90 degree angle. The idea is to disrupt as few of the cells in that bottom quarter inch as possible. Don't attempt to coat or wax the cut, it will hamper your efforts.

Practically all plant tissue that comes to my mind changes its basic functionary, by enzymatic changes within the tissue. Simply stated root tissue produces a different enzyme than than , for example, trunk or stem tissue, or literally, 'closer to the sun' 'fruiting tissue'. This is basically determined by the 'whole' plant in response to a specific need, in the case of your cuttings, umm, roots Once those little whitish bumps form, their very first 'job' is to change the enzyme condition 'all the way up to..where the sun reaches the stem/trunk of the new plant. Your specimens in the observation vile will show you roots beginning to sprout (lots more little white bumps) all the way up the stem not all that long after the ones which formed first on the bottom of your clean cut reach about a 1/4" in length. Your cuttings in your potting medium will closely mimic the results in the vile, perhaps a day or three behind..if your moisture levels are maintained. When you have 3/4" to an inch of roots on the stem about the same distance up the stem..your cuttings are ready for either an intermediate medium, or weather permitting (NO FREEZE), setting to your nursery or even final site environment. Bear in mind all other life forms love to eat the newest, most tender of tissue, as that's where all nitrogen bearing amino acids are found, that are the essential building blocks of all Life.

There are all manners of protecting your new and promising production from the 'boogers' from the hazards, which are also organically sound, basically chemically free...and a whole bunch of fun and inspiration in their own right. Most of these I have 'learned' since leaving commercial production..and they form a whole new chapter in this discussion. I'll illustrate with one very favorite example. The more bird boxes, and handy perches you have close to 'your' crops the less problem you'll have with bugs, the less problems you have with bugs the less problems you'll have with pathogenic fungi and virus that moves in best on distressed tissue. Perches provide a place for birds to study for other helpful 'critters' such as Garter snakes, before dropping in to grab, say..a cut worm.

And speaking of viruses, one of the most prevalent, attacking nearly all plant tissues in various forms of the virus..is Tomato Leaf spot virus. It's the monkey on raspberries too. Every second year I 'dynamically'?, meaning while that season' crop is maturing...produce new, virus free plants from the parents.

Hoo boy, waht a can or worms you've opened And speaking of worms...........

Thank you for the opportunity to re-visit one of my favorite 'studies'.

[fleroo]

G'Lord. Now THAT'S a wealth o knowledge.

[redarrow]

Great info here! It is appreciated.