I did a thorough inspection of all my grafts yesterday. Farmlogs says we're 12 inches below our average rainfall so far, and only about a half inch more in the 10 day forecast, so it's been a rough year for new trees. Recently upped my watering to 10 gallons per tree through drip buckets, twice a week, and they're pushing out new leaves again.
Of the 27 planted directly into the orchard, all on B118, 9 of the varieties have not made it. Of those 9, 5 still have rootstock growing, so will be regrafted in the future.
52 were planted into a nursery area closer to home, of the 27 on B118, two varieties have died, with both rootstocks still growing. Of the 25 on M111, seven have died, with four of those rootstocks still growing.
Of the 25 varieties grafted to my frankentree, 2 have not made it due to broken grafts. One was due to high winds during a thunderstorm, the other I expect was due to a bird landing on it.
All 4 Liberty grafts have died.
The Empire in the orchard, and both in the nursery have died.
Spartan and William's Pride have both died in the orchard, and one in the nursery.
Spencer, Sweet 16, Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Golden Russet, Prairie Spy, Arkansas Black, Fuji, Honeygold, and Enterprise have produced vigorous growth on both nursery grafts and the frankentree. A handful of the nursery grafts are approaching 5 feet tall.
In light of the dry, hot summer, I'm happy with how things have gone so far. I think I'll be cutting back on how many I graft next year as it's been a lot of work.