Grafting Chestnuts

[yoderjac]

I don't know whether it is my technique of using cell in a bag that is the problem (Perhaps too much humidity) or if I'm just not sticking the scion in the right place in the nut, but now that I know what to look for, I'm sure my success rate will be very low. I opened the bags and disposed of 3 of them that were clearly covered with mold. There are more that seem to be going this route. I still have a couple that I can't tell 100% but presume will fail. I do plan to be patient with them.

Here is a picture of the one that seems to be taking:

Thaks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I wonder if wrapping the scion in parafilm would be an advantage? Perhaps it would keep the mold from attacking the scion.

 

[yoderjac]

The stem in the pics above continues to grow. I decided to open the bag slightly tonight to begin the process of acclimating humidity.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Seems to be taking off well so far:

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Think you have a winner with that one. So far still just the 1 for me, but it's looking good.

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[yoderjac]

It is standing up even more today, so I decided to unzip the bag completely. I think tomorrow if things still look good, I'll prop the bag open for a day or so. This looks like it will be my only success...about 10%. I wish I knew if it was my modification to the technique of placing the grafted nuts in 18s and then the 18s in bags rather than placing them in peat in a bag and completely covering them for a while or if I simply am not inserting the scion in the right spot in the nut.

It sounds like you more closely followed the prescribed process. If your success rate is as poor as mine, then using 18s is likely not the problem.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Merle Hawggard]

I'm thinking it's the scion placement. So far I've only had the one show growth. I have a few more that at least look kind of green, but no growth yet.
I placed mine in straight peat.

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[Merle Hawggard]

The one take looks good though.

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[yoderjac]

Looking good. In my case, many of the scions got mold. I wonder if I had the humidity in the bag too high. So it could be scion placement or technique for me. Glad you got some success. I decided to open all mine up and dispose of the moldy ones today. Other than the one that seems to have taken, I only kept two of them. They don't look promising but are not yet obvious failures. I did spray them with antifungal before putting them back in the bags. I decided to leave to top partly open to see if that helps.

I got brave and decided to take the successful one out of the bag completely today. I'll mist it a couple times a day for the next couple days. Here it is without the bag to distort the picture:

I added a little osmocote to the top of the cell.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Merle Hawggard]

I'm probably going to move this one 2 a bottomless pot this week or at least a temporary but larger one. I've still got it in the bag though I leave it open a bit now. I give it full sun from a south facing window now as well.
Looks like the only take I had.

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[yoderjac]

Yours looks much stronger than mine! Great work. Interesting that we both only had one...

 

[yoderjac]

My one success is moving right along growing well but is still not as nice looking as Merle's. I think I'm passed the danger point and will likely end up with a tree. I checked the other two and they are toast, so my success rate with nut grafting is 10%.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Jack,
Mine has been stuck at thus size the last week. I went a head and potted it up in a mix of peat and potting soil with a little added osmocote. Has good color still and I am putting it on my porch each day for sheltered sunlight. The picture was taken in full to help it show up better.

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[yoderjac]

I'm starting to believe that acclimating seedlings early (may not be early for you but it is here) tends to stall them for a while. I think the cool night temps, even if above freezing, slow them down after being indoors at 70 degrees for most of their life. It seems to take a while for them to take off a gain. I'm going to try holding some trees indoors for an extra month this year before taking them out. I want to see how this affects growth.

Your tree looks great! Much better than mine. Mine still has small leaves. It is growing but slowly.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[DLH]

I have been talking to someone that's part of TACF and he sent me pictures of some of his succesful bark grafts of Americans. I bark grafted a ozark chinkapin to an Allehany chinkapin this weekend if it takes and does well I will post some pictures of it. After he sent me some of his ark grafts it makes me feel better about bark grafting chestnuts.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Well, it's up to you and Jack I'm afraid.
My one nut successful nut graft was looking pretty good till I had the bright idea to leave it on my trailer for a little more sun one morning as I left for work
When I got home, 12 hours later, something, I suspect my wife's new dog, had jumped up on the trailer and decided the pot was a chew toy.
My tree was left high and dry for no telling how long.
I did repot it and bring it in the house and while the stem is still green all the leaves have fallen off except the bottom one.
I'm still babying it, but don't have a lot of faith in it..


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[yoderjac]

Merle,

We may both be out of luck. I transplanted mine to a 1 gal RB2 and moved it outside with my other trees. It now show leaf drooping, curling, and drying out. These are the symptoms I get with the occasional "carrot root" issue with chestnuts. I'm guessing this is the same pathogen since we have had quite a bit of rain since I took it outside and perhaps overwatering is the issue. However since this is nut grafted, it doesn't have a tap root.

It will probably die, but I decided to remove all the leaves and clip the stem just above a good bud. Time will tell...but I'm not optimistic.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Well, we can try again next year. Mine hasn't put out a new shoot so I'm quite certain it's toast.

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[yoderjac]

My nut graft did not recover so I'm on to my next phase of chestnut grafting. This is a whip and tongue graft of an AU Super to a Dunstan seedling:

This is my first graft to a seedling. I hope to do more soon.

THanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I've been grafting a few more. I recently got a Chinese knock-off of one of the multi-hundred dollar grafting tools. For $30 I figured I'd give it a try. I used it on this chestnut:

It cuts a sharp V in both rootstock and scion. I'm sure it is intended for bench grafting, but I don't see any reason you can't use it in the field if you have matching diameters. It took a bit to get the hang of it, but it seemed to make a nice match. I wrapped the scion in parafilm-M to help keep it from drying out and used electrical tape on the graft itself.

Thanks,

Jack