Nursery's In

[Mortenson]

Not super proud of the aesthetics of it. Hopefully it keeps the rabbits out until I have time to reinforce. The trees better have their big boy pants on, with 80's in the forecast and some storms to roll through. Do I need to worry about mice ya think??

 

[H20fwler]

Looks good, nice crew of helpers!

 

[Prof.Kent]

ALWAYS worry about mice/voles!

 

[Mortenson]

ALWAYS worry about mice/voles!

Good point. So is the best practice to window screen each graft?

 

[greyphase]

Looks like you had some help with your heavy liftin'. Window screen is always a good idea.

 

[Prof.Kent]

And mouse/vole poison. Lots and lots of poison.

Found vole problems!

Poison the voles!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Great looking crew you have there, Mortenson !! Tell them they did a great job helping Dad and we all saw what they helped with. Nice little patch for a nursery.

We had some fat little porkers just like the 2nd pic from Prof. Kent above running around in our orchard this past weekend. With screen on all our trees - no chewing at all. Those fat porkers didn't fare well !! Size 10's flatten pretty well.

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks fellas. It's been 2 weeks of fabulous spring weather here in IL. The grafts have really enjoyed being outdoors. I had to gamble and put them in a full sun spot. Interesting to note that Arkansas Black are way later in breaking bud than most the rest of what I have. One of them finally made a leaf yesterday. Enterprise is also a late one, as are the 2 Asian Olympic pears I have tried to graft, although they aren't really showing signs of anything yet. Too soon to tell what kind of success I'll have on this project. Does anyone have thoughts on how long I can keep the electrical tape on? I wrapped them pretty dang tight. Should I be thinking something like mid summer? Or will girdle happen long before then?

 

[Prof.Kent]

If you use parafilm tape (wax tape) you don't have to worry about girdling. The tape expands and, in time, falls off by itself.
Two months after grafting should be enough time for the grafts to heal well.

 

[chickenlittle]

I'd start checking in July. The more vigorous the growth, the more sooner it will start to girdle the graft union. If I wasn't ready to completely remove it, I'd make a single cut up and down the graft to remove the pressure and let it come off over time. Usually no harm in leaving tape on a little long although I had some poorly healing cleft grafts that had some fungal growth under PVC tape.

 

[Mortenson]

The growth leader to date is a Liberty on B118, pictured. Of the 38 apple/crabs I grafted, 23 appear to have a solid graft marriage. A few others have thriving rootstock but haven't broken any buds, probably a failed graft. A handful of others did break dormancy but then the rootstock died, taking the whole tree with it. I think I may have watered one of my tubs of grafts too heavily and drowned some of them before they were planted into the nursery. Batting around .600 at this point.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

How many trees do you have growing in the nursery there, Mort ??

 

[H20fwler]

They look good....the cobra guarding them may be overkill.
I use electrical tape grafting more than grafting tape, I carefully slit it late summer so the bark underneath can harden for winter.