Caring For Fruit Tree Grafts

[sandbur]

Planted two of the remaining 7 yesterday and potted up one of my Kazak (MN 80-15-30) grafts to trade with Art. The last 4 I have my doubts about. Two budded out and then dried up and the other two (pears) have just sat and done nothing. All of the scions still look "ok" (not all shriveled up) so I'll just let 'em go and see what happens.

Stu-what does that Mn 80-15-30 mean?

If it is a variety you want to keep for your self, you can still have the Kinder Crisp.

 

[buckvelvet]

MN 80-15-30 is the name given to a Kazak apple by the guys who brought the scions back to MN from Kazakhstan. Here's the description from GRIN -
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1723437

I planted 3 or 4 of them here already Art, so its yours if you want it.

I don't believe I've read much of you guys discussing this apple. When did you plant them and how are they doing?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Not such good news on my first 6 graft attempts. Gypsy moth caterpillar ate 3 of them clean of leaves. One shows signs of putting out new leaves - very small. One got burned by the sun , I believe. One looks pretty good yet and the last of the 6 grafts I knocked the sprout off with the watering can.:oops: :mad: That'll teach me to be more careful !! The other 4 rootstocks that I planted to grow into whatever are doing real well. The grafted rootstocks that have the eaten sprouts on the scion are alive and doing well. Glad I left the sprouts on those rootstocks !!! Maybe another try next winter on those if the scions don't push new leaves ??

 

[buckvelvet]

OUCH BNB!

 

[sandbur]

MN 80-15-30 is the name given to a Kazak apple by the guys who brought the scions back to MN from Kazakhstan. Here's the description from GRIN -
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1723437

I planted 3 or 4 of them here already Art, so its yours if you want it.

Thank You, Stu. That apple sounds very interesting. I have some bud sticks coming for some Iowensis/domestic apple crosses. I wanted scion, but the order was mixed up.
I need some help with tbud advice.. My attempts from last summer all failed.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Good news on the above - mentioned grafts. I just checked them and 2 of the 3 scions eaten off by caterpillar are sprouting new baby leaves !!:) Graft must have been good or they would be toast. Maybe the other eaten one will sprout new leaves yet. If I get 3 of the 6 grafts to make it until next spring, it'll be a success for planting them at camp. That was the original intent anyway - to have a couple late-hangers for the deer. Wooo-hooo !!!

 

[greyphase]

Good news on the above - mentioned grafts. I just checked them and 2 of the 3 scions eaten off by caterpillar are sprouting new baby leaves !!:) Graft must have been good or they would be toast. Maybe the other eaten one will sprout new leaves yet. If I get 3 of the 6 grafts to make it until next spring, it'll be a success for planting them at camp. That was the original intent anyway - to have a couple late-hangers for the deer. Wooo-hooo !!!

That is good news BnB. Afraid my grafts of the late hangers you sent me didn't make it, but several limb grafts I did with some of the scion are growing good. So it wasn't a complete loss :).

 

[sandbur]

Thank you for the Kindercrisp. I'll certainly help with the t-budding if I can....far from an expert though.

Does my climate and soil have an affect on t-budding success?
Any help with T budding would be appreciated.

Here is the KC,

 

[sandbur]

Art,

This will be the first year for bud grafting for me. I'd say location could be a factor if you're grafting onto rootstock that you're going to overwinter verses planted in the ground. The graft has to get healed and you need the rootstock to survive you're winters. August grafting should give it the time to heal over unless you had a real early frost.

The two that I tried in ground had die back and death of the rootstock. It was a 10 plus year old red prairie spy that I cut off and gave up on.
I tried two others on B118's that were in ground, but no dice.

 

[sandbur]

Had you watered them well so the bark slipped easily?

I suspect that was part of the problem. I did water them for about a week ahead of time, but am not sure if I can get enough water to them on this light soil. The bark did NOT slip easily.

This spring I had some bark slip from a cleft graft project. I tucked a piece of scion under the slip and it seemed to take.

 

[Freeborn]

Art, is that a root maker bag and how big is it? How do you plan on using that big bag? Will you plant the tree this year or in a different year? Is there a way you can pull the tree and material out together.

I have thought it might be worthwhile growing trees for a couple years so they get taller but was not sure how to work with the large bags.

 

[sandbur]

Art, is that a root maker bag and how big is it? How do you plan on using that big bag? Will you plant the tree this year or in a different year? Is there a way you can pull the tree and material out together.

I have thought it might be worthwhile growing trees for a couple years so they get taller but was not sure how to work with the large bags.

That is a reused rootrapper bag that Stu gave me. Stu gave me two larger ones besides. Maybe he remembers the size.

I'm going to give the bag and tree back to Stu and he can winter it or plant it.

Jerry-Last year I grew two of the trees from our grafting class in the larger roottrappers. I wintered them in the garden, buried to ground level and fenced. This spring I planted them up north and just opened the seam along the edge where Stu had stapled the bag shut from previous use. One was a B118 that did not take and the other was chestnut crab on B118. I would guess the biggest one was about 40 inches tall.

On either side of this Kindercrisp in the picture, there are 4 other grafts on dolgo that are in buckets like the Jim Timber system. Two whitney crabs on dolgo for farmers who gave me scion and wanted a whitney from the tree that their greatgrandmother planted many years ago. Also two grafts on dolgo that I am calling the Dog series. One for me (up north in spring 2016) and the other for a neighbor that gave me some scion from a disease free 2 inch crab that drops about Veterans Day. I am trying the bucket system since the other two roottrappers had trees in them at the time and I am a cheap skate who did not want to buy more bags for trees that I was going to give away.. Jim's system worked pretty well.

I keep these container trees on the northeast side of my house where they get some sunlight and right next to the rainbarrels.

 

[sandbur]

This cleft graft split the para film on its own. The graft looks well healed.

How long was that tree in the ground?

 

[greyphase]

Wow. That's some good growth NH.

 

[sandbur]

Wow. That's some good growth NH.

I only have half of that growth. Good job, NH.

 

[sandbur]

I'm lucky if my grafts have a quarter of that growth...wow :eek:

You are now in the north country, Stu!

The only things that grow bigger are hunting stories.

 

[sandbur]

Stuart-were the other two the 5 gallons size?

The roots came out of them well and did not fill the trapper after one year.
Dolgo is the rootstock this year which might give different results than B118.

 

[Freeborn]

Freeborn....I believe that roottrapper is a 3 gallon bag. IME, 3 gallon bags are good for growing a newly grafted rootstock out for a year. Dig them in to the ground in the fall (protect with window screen) then dig back out and plant them next spring. Depending on how much the roots have grown the previous year, much of the rooting medium will come out along with the roots. Sometimes you don't get as much rooting and just the roots with a bit of the soil come out. When heavily rooted, you need to cut the bag open vertically to remove the root mass. As Art noted, they can be stapled shut and re-used a number of times.

Thanks Stu, I purchased 5 gallon bags and wanted to get an idea if they will keep a tree for a year and maybe 2 years. If I wanted to keep them in the bags for two years could I just bury the whole bag late fall year 1 and take it out again the second year? My home property is small and all woods so I need to move the trees into the sun and into the irrigation system to get max growth.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I reuse all my 5 and 7 gallon bags and since I try to plant them all the same year I don't have to worry too much about the roots being too tight in the bag I just roll the bag on its side for a bit to loosen the dirt and the tree kind of starts loosening around the trunk and roots then I just gently get under the roots and pull it out with some potting soil. I even save half or more of the soil to plant more grafts. Here is a pic of graft planted this year on G.11 roots

 

[aerospacefarmer]

here is a pic of my last year grafts that I planted in place in June of last year. I think its Fameuse and Yellow Delicious