Caring For Fruit Tree Grafts

[Freeborn]

There has been a couple threads about apple grafts that are having failures after starting out successful. I am having the same experience (dried out buds, leaf curl and some dark edges on the leaves) and am wondering if the mistake I made was not keeping the humidity level high on my new grafts.

When I originally grafted my apple trees I placed a white trash bag over the grafts to protect them from the sun and to keep the scions moist. After very good initial success I took the bags off thinking I was ready to move on. Unfortunately I have had several grafts start to fail and I am afraid I might have lost more grafts than I should have. I’m thinking the issue is that I did not keep the graft moist and of course it took me a couple of days to realize humidity might be the problem. I have now put the white trash bags back onto my grafts and am hoping I can recover a couple of grafts that started to fail.

Attached is a link to a article on taking care of newly grafted fruit trees and the second step on the list is keeping the grafts humid.

http://www.seattletreefruitsociety....012/05/stfs-careforgraftedtree-forwebsite.pdf

I’m not certain if this will help now but I figure it’s worth the effort.

 

[Turkey Creek]

You are always going to have a few failures, we all do. The green leaves that start and then fail on the scion are just using what energy was stored in the scion wood and then when the callus fails to form the scion dies. The bags might increase the length of time they "survive", but if the grafts are going to fail you are just delaying their end.

 

[sandbur]

Jerry-mine are all planted, but we have had frosts the last two nights. I have them covered and just cut a small hole in the cover, yesterday morning.

 

[Freeborn]

FB,

Did you wrap your grafts with paraffin tape? Did you dip the entire graft in melted wax? That should be enough to keep the moisture in. If you've let them sit for a couple weeks after grafting to heal and connect then you should be set. If the leaves dried up after bud popping then it may be a bad graft but, let them go. I've had one Ribston pippin dry up on the upper most bud. Now a few weeks later it popped a new leaf lower down on the scion.

I wrapped mine with Paraffin wax and tightened with budding bands but did not wax mine. I'm going to see if this helps. Most of the scion I used came from Maple Valley and they were so small they were very hard to work with. The die back is disappointing and I'd like to know exactly what happened but thats not possible. Once again its two steps forward and one step backward. This is worth a try and we will see if this does anything.

 

[Freeborn]

Thanks NH, you never know so I'll hope for the best.

How do you determine when to move your grafts to your Rootmaker bags? I was thinking once I determine what is going to happen with these final grafts I'm ready to move them. Are you using a special potting soil or regular soil?

 

[sandbur]

Jerry-this is the first year I tried the grafting band, but I put them under the parafilm. I am not sure which way is correct. I then used tree cote over the tip and most of the scion and over the parafilm.

How should I improve my method?

Sorry to steal your thread, Jerry.

 

[Freeborn]

Jerry-this is the first year I tried the grafting band, but I put them under the parafilm. I am not sure which way is correct. I then used tree cote over the tip and most of the scion and over the parafilm.

How should I improve my method?

Sorry to steal your thread, Jerry.

Art, you want the bands outside the paraffin as the bands have to be removed or deteriorate so they don't girdle the graft. As I understand it the Paraffin tape which has wax on it should seal the graft without adding hot wax. I thought the Paraffin worked very well as I wrapped mine liberally. I do think you improve your odds greatly by starting with good rootstock and good scion. I will be hesitant ordering from Maple Valley as the scion was so small I had a hard time getting the cambium to line up. I'm still going to end up around 65%-70%.

 

[sandbur]

Art, you want the bands outside the paraffin as the bands have to be removed or deteriorate so they don't girdle the graft. As I understand it the Paraffin tape which has wax on it should seal the graft without adding hot wax. I thought the Paraffin worked very well as I wrapped mine liberally. I do think you improve your odds greatly by starting with good rootstock and good scion. I will be hesitant ordering from Maple Valley as the scion was so small I had a hard time getting the cambium to line up. I'm still going to end up around 65%-70%.

Thanks, Jerry.

That was my next question-since the bands are covered by parafilm and tree cote, when should I consider a slit to loosen up the band/coating?

 

[Freeborn]

I use Promix BX if I can get it. I add some osmocote to it. If I can't get Promix then I've used Miracle Gro potting soil and added some shredded coconut stuff which also had the perlite beads to aerate the soil. I move my grafts to the rootmakers about 2 weeks after grafting. I used 3 and 5 gallon rootrapper bags. I leave a few inches open at the top for easier carrying/moving of the bags.

Thanks NH, BX looks like a nice product, I'll give it a try. I have my Rootmaker bags like yours and should be all set to go.

Thanks, Jerry.

That was my next question-since the bands are covered by parafilm and tree cote, when should I consider a slit to loosen up the band/coating?

Art, I don't have an answer for you but I would think you should not take the wax off for 60 days from when you graft. This is just an estimate on my part.

 

[jwill1776]

Speaking of new grafts, how much growth or how long of a time period before I can spray with Imidam and Captan? Spray the normal rates?

 

[sandbur]

Thanks NH, BX looks like a nice product, I'll give it a try. I have my Rootmaker bags like yours and should be all set to go.



Art, I don't have an answer for you but I would think you should not take the wax off for 60 days from when you graft. This is just an estimate on my part.

Stuart reminded me last year and things worked out. I have a few cleft grafts where I just used the plastic grocery bags.

 

[sandbur]

Jerry-mine are all planted, but we have had frosts the last two nights. I have them covered and just cut a small hole in the cover, yesterday morning.View attachment 5117

I removed my covers tonight after two nights of frost. So far they look good and I think the "hot cap" stimulated a bit of growth.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I wrapped mine with Paraffin wax and tightened with budding bands but did not wax mine. I'm going to see if this helps. Most of the scion I used came from Maple Valley and they were so small they were very hard to work with. The die back is disappointing and I'd like to know exactly what happened but thats not possible. Once again its two steps forward and one step backward. This is worth a try and we will see if this does anything.

Most of my graft failures are on scions from Maple Valley. I would say 90 % so I think that could be an issue. Scions were very small even after one of the scions broke bud it is looking sad now. I won't use them again

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Speaking of new grafts, how much growth or how long of a time period before I can spray with Imidam and Captan? Spray the normal rates?

I sprayed mine tonight with both. Those damn caterpillars were killing the leaves on new grafts and other trees but the grafts are still so young and few leaves. I don't think it will hurt them. I sprayed my grafts last year and they are doing awesome

 

[chickenlittle]

Most of my graft failures are on scions from Maple Valley.

That is my experience too. The scions I got from you have done well. Almost all of the Maple Valley wood has failed. Unfortunately they had a few things I could not find elsewhere.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I am thinking Aero needs to get into the scion business!;):)

 

[aerospacefarmer]

We are going to 32 tonight :eek:

 

[buckvelvet]

So does most everyone wait until August/Mid August to cut the bindings off the graft or does anyone use a diff method?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I hope you don't get clobbered by the frost Aero. Most of our trees at camp - Lyco. Co. - that were going to bloom were blooming the last couple weeks. They are getting all-day sun for the most part, early morning to late evening. I hope ours are doing O.K. We'll see this weekend. Good luck with yours up in E. Sm. !!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

We should be ok down to 28 so we have some margin. I have a great fruit set on all my apple and pear trees and just did my first cover spray with Imidan yesterday as a lot of my trees were getting their leaves eaten by some sort of caterpillar. There were small black ones, larger green ones and even really big ones that looked like gypsy moth cats. I hope the imidan smoked them