Replacing a goldrush

[Charman03]

I planted a few goldrush this spring and although they grew pretty decent it’s obvious I’m going to be fighting CAR around here pretty bad. I’m going to keep one around but I’m wanting to replace the one pictured below.

I was going to dig it up and take it somewhere else but now I’m thinking about just grafting a different variety to the existing tree most likely liberty. What would be my plan of action for grafting this tree. How low would you cut it? There’s a liberty close I can pull scions from. Thoughts?

 

[gunfun13]

I'm not the guy to answer your grafting question..but from what I've read and seen posted, aside from the leaves looking bad..CAR doesn't really seem to bother goldrush very much.

 

[Northbound]

I'm no expert either but goldrush is one of the more disease resistant varieties isn't it?
If you where going to graft it over id be tempted to graft above first set of scaffolds to see if long term the liberty was any better than the goldrush. However since your driveway is right there you may not want any Frankenstein trees standing out like a sore thumb

 

[Native Hunter]

CAR isn't a serious problem with Goldrush at a lot of places. Most of the northern guys on here grow the apple and really like it. I would do some asking around before making a decision to topwork it. It is a problem in my area, but I know there are guys from your state on here who grow and love the apple.

 

[Charman03]

2 goldrush and a crimson crisp got the CAR pretty bad at this spot this year. This tree is close to the house and I just want a nice looking tree in the future

 

[yoderjac]

If you want another variety, I would wait until spring. You can cleft graft before it breaks dormancy. I'd cut it off just below the lowest branches. Another option is bark grafting. For that, you need to wait until they start leafing out so the sap is running and the bark slips.

Thanks,

jack

 

[Prof.Kent]

When to working a tree I always left one branch, called a nursery branch, and grafted all other limbs either WTH saddle or rind grafts. The nursery limb keeps the tree alive until the grafts start growing. Remove (and/or graft) the nursery limb the next year. Liberty is a good substitute. Search for "Grafting wild apple trees" on my YouTube channel ; Prof.Kent, for an example.

 

[yoderjac]

I've done that with seedlings, not to keep the tree alive, but because I wanted to see what kind of fruit the seedling would produce. I seemed to have less success that way. It could be because of the different varieties I was using. The seedlings (crab apple) leaf out much earlier than the grafted variety. I found the seedlings wanted to put there energy into that nurse branch since it was leafing out and providing return rather than pushing the graft. I did have some success that way, but when I did not leave a nurse branch I had higher success.

Perhaps when grafting more compatible varieties one would not have this issue.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bowsnbucks]

It's too bad you have CAR problems there, Charman. There must be some members of the juniper family nearby that host the CAR fungus. The Goldrush apples themselves are
the biggest flavor pop from a regular apple I've ever eaten. They're tremendous right off the tree. But if you get hammered that badly there, Liberty or Enterprise are good choices to change over to. Both are DR. Having both Liberty & Enterprise growing at camp, I like the looks of Enterprise better as a good looking tree. We have no problems with it, other than a few bug chews, but there's no variety immune to bugs. A little spray takes care of that.

Just so you know what I'm referring to when I said Enterprise is a better looking tree - our 5th year old Liberties and Enterprises are both about the same height. But for overall shape, the Liberties are thinner, more spindly. The Enterprises are fuller and have a rounder canopy. I think to the avg. person, Enterprise would appear to be the "prettier" tree. FWIW.

 

[Prof.Kent]

I've done that with seedlings, not to keep the tree alive, but because I wanted to see what kind of fruit the seedling would produce. I seemed to have less success that way. It could be because of the different varieties I was using. The seedlings (crab apple) leaf out much earlier than the grafted variety. I found the seedlings wanted to put there energy into that nurse branch since it was leafing out and providing return rather than pushing the graft. I did have some success that way, but when I did not leave a nurse branch I had higher success.

Perhaps when grafting more compatible varieties one would not have this issue.

Thanks,

Jack

It helps if the nusery branch is lower on the tree than the grafts.

 

[yoderjac]

It helps if the nusery branch is lower on the tree than the grafts.

Cute! Yes, if you were serious, I cut off the top of the trees and topworked them for the new known variety. I simply left a single branch well below the graft so I could eventually see what kind of fruit the seedling would produce had I not topworked it. It took several years of grafting attempts to get some of those grafts to take but some took the first try. When I did not leave the nurse branch they all took. I'm thinking the reason is the difference in leaf out time. On the seedlings with a nurse branch that took a few years ago, I find that lower nurse branch now produces leaves about a month before the first leaves on the grafted part of the tree. My assumption is that even those the graft was higher than the nurse branch, because it was not ready to produce leaves, the seedling was just not pushing as much energy to it.

It could also simply be coincidental that I happened to make better grafts on the trees where I did not leave a nurse branch. The sample size was small.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Prof.Kent]

Cute! Yes, if you were serious, I cut off the top of the trees and topworked them for the new known variety. I simply left a single branch well below the graft so I could eventually see what kind of fruit the seedling would produce had I not topworked it. It took several years of grafting attempts to get some of those grafts to take but some took the first try. When I did not leave the nurse branch they all took. I'm thinking the reason is the difference in leaf out time. On the seedlings with a nurse branch that took a few years ago, I find that lower nurse branch now produces leaves about a month before the first leaves on the grafted part of the tree. My assumption is that even those the graft was higher than the nurse branch, because it was not ready to produce leaves, the seedling was just not pushing as much energy to it.

It could also simply be coincidental that I happened to make better grafts on the trees where I did not leave a nurse branch. The sample size was small.

Thanks,

Jack

The grafts have to heal before the sap can flow through and they can start pushing the buds, that's why they leaf-out later.
I wasn't being cute. Not everyone knows that the tops of trees grow more than the side branches. When giving advice or troubleshooting, one must assume the recipient is ignorant; even if it may offend. Since you are obviously a brilliant individual, please disregard advice that may seem
condescending. :-)

 

[yoderjac]

The grafts have to heal before the sap can flow through and they can start pushing the buds, that's why they leaf-out later.
I wasn't being cute. Not everyone knows that the tops of trees grow more than the side branches.

True. Once I topwork, I tie the nurse branch down as close to horizontal as possible. It almost immediately start putting up vertical branches from it. I always keep those pruned so nothing is a high as the graft.

These graphs has plenty of time to callus. That is not the leaf-out difference. It is the difference in varieties. I'm saying that now, several years after grafting, each spring that lower branch of the original seedling leafs out almost a month before the grafted variety above. I think most of the seedlings came from Siberian Red seeds. Some came from Dolgo seeds.

I also left some of the seedlings alone and did not graft them at all. They also leaf out about a month before my named varieties on M111.

Even when I did not leave a nurse branch, the seedling started putting out new shoots below the graft, but I removed these leaving the energy no place to go but the scion. As I say, I could be wrong about the leaf-out timing having a negative impact when leaving a nurse branch. It could have been coincidence since the sample size was small. Maybe I happened to get better cambium match on the trees where I did not leave a nurse branch than on the grafts where I did leave the nurse branch. It is only an anecdotal observation, but it did seem to me that the large discrepancy in leaf-out had an impact.

Thanks,

Jack