2017 Spring topworked trees flowering this spring

[Native Hunter]

Looks like I could get some fruit this year from some trees topworked in the spring of 2017. I though you guys might like to see how these have thrived from the little 4 inch sticks they started out as:

This is a callery pear that I changed to Hunter's Choice:

Another callery I topworked to Kieffer:

A worthless crabapple I topworked to a nice, late 1.5 inch crab.

This is one of the New York wild apples that I topworked on another apple. Didn't take a pic of the tree but it is really tall. Blooms are a few days from opening but very visible.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Rit]

I really need to learn this top working that you are talking about. I have some Callery pear trees in really great stand spots.

 

[Rit]

Here are 4 Callery pear trees that are about 20 yards from one of my best stands. I almost cut these down. I am pretty sure they are Callery pears anyway. The biggest one is about 20’ tall. I have a dozen or so all along my transition plot. Any tips or direction you could point me in would be greatly appreciated. Do these seem like good candidates?

 

[Native Hunter]

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Here are 4 Callery pear trees that are about 20 yards from one of my best stands. I almost cut these down. I am pretty sure they are Callery pears anyway. The biggest one is about 20’ tall. I have a dozen or so all along my transition plot. Any tips or direction you could point me in would be greatly appreciated. Do these seem like good candidates?

Yes, they do seem like good candidates. The following is how I do it:

• Get your scion wood when it is dormant and before you see any green tips. Keep it in the fridge in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag up until time to graft.
• Wait for the tree to come out of dormancy and start putting out leaves. In my area, right now is an excellent time - but too early for northern guys.
• For trees that size, a bark graft works great. Watch videos on the Internet about bark grafting.
• Once they scions start growing they will grow tall very fast. I use cane sticks and tape to brace them. Before doing this, I had a bunch to break off. I leave the braces on for one year and remove them the next spring, unless I have the feeling they should stay on longer.
• Watch the tape you use for the scions and bracing through the first year. Don't let it get too tight. Cut and retape if necessary.
• I like the black wound sealer around my grafts, but other folks use wax and have no issues.
• After the first year it is a matter of waiting. I would not recommend any pruning for a long time. I had one successful apple tree and thought I would thin it a little the second year. It died in two weeks. The ones I didn't thin have done great. It could have been a fluke event, but I am gun shy about pruning and shaping too early.

Good Luck.

 

[Rit]

Yes, they do seem like good candidates. The following is how I do it:

• Get your scion wood when it is dormant and before you see any green tips. Keep it in the fridge in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag up until time to graft.
• Wait for the tree to come out of dormancy and start putting out leaves. In my area, right now is an excellent time - but too early for northern guys.
• For trees that size, a bark graft works great. Watch videos on the Internet about bark grafting.
• Once they scions start growing they will grow tall very fast. I use cane sticks and tape to brace them. Before doing this, I had a bunch to break off. I leave the braces on for one year and remove them the next spring, unless I have the feeling they should stay on longer.
• Watch the tape you use for the scions and bracing through the first year. Don't let it get too tight. Cut and retape if necessary.
• I like the black wound sealer around my grafts, but other folks use wax and have no issues.
• After the first year it is a matter of waiting. I would not recommend any pruning for a long time. I had one successful apple tree and thought I would thin it a little the second year. It died in two weeks. The ones I didn't thin have done great. It could have been a fluke event, but I am gun shy about pruning and shaping too early.

Good Luck.

Thanks NH you’re such a savage. I know what I’ll be doing for the rest of the night. Those trees are still dormant buds haven’t broken yet. I’ll try not to beat you up with too many questions. Hopefully I am not SOL and can try one of these this year yet. Thanks again.

 

[Rit]

NH did you end up with fruit as you suspected on these top worked trees? I didn’t end up trying it this year really late to track down scionwood. I did find 18 candidates for next spring though. It should make a couple pretty good stands great stands in a few years.

 

[Native Hunter]

NH did you end up with fruit as you suspected on these top worked trees? I didn’t end up trying it this year really late to track down scionwood. I did find 18 candidates for next spring though. It should make a couple pretty good stands great stands in a few years.

Yes I do have fruit on them, but the crops are small on the pears. The crabapple was loaded so heavily I thinned it for fear of breaking the limbs. I also have heavy fruit set on several persimmons that were topworked last spring.

 

[Rit]

Yes I do have fruit on them, but the crops are small on the pears. The crabapple was loaded so heavily I thinned it for fear of breaking the limbs. I also have heavy fruit set on several persimmons that were topworked last spring.

Outstanding!

 

[Appleman]

Topworking is all about timing and is an easy grafting technique to do. It is a cost effective way in today's ever changing market to convert old cultivar blocks to the next best thing in the consumer market. About 10 years ago, after the patent expired for Honeycrisp, I was hired out at several orchards in late March early April to topworking blocks of Liberty to covert to Honeycrisp. With a success rate of about 90% the trees were producing a crop of Honeycrisp in 4 to 5 years. The most fun topworking is converting wild trees at various locations on my property to more productive varieties, like liberty, to enhance mast crop to increase hunting opportunity.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Appleman - Does Liberty do well for you up there ?? Our Liberties at camp are growing well, but they don't seem to put on many branches. Is that just their growth style ??

 

[Appleman]

Appleman - Does Liberty do well for you up there ?? Our Liberties at camp are growing well, but they don't seem to put on many branches. Is that just their growth style ??

Liberty does exceptionally well in our area and have found them to be more winter-hardy then what they are said to be. There was a winter mortality study done back in the early nineties in Quebec that evaluated both rootstocks and varieties. Of the many orchard locations studied around Quebec, Liberty experienced the least amount of winter damage or mortality as compared to other cultivars during a bitterly cold winter. I have sold many liberty trees over a 20 year span. The majority of the trees come in as whips (no branches). It is recommended when planting a whip, like liberty, the tree is headed back to a tight bud on the trunk at a height of 34 to 36 inches. This releases a growth hormone, called auxin, which will stimulate the development of side branching. Were your trees headed back at planting?

 

[Native Hunter]

I'm sure it was just a fluke event, but the only tree I have ever had die from winter damage was a Liberty. Sunscald caused complete bark separation from the trunk. The tree continued to live for several years and it still would bear fruit. The bark that was left on one side of the tree (but separated from the trunk) got at least 2 inches thick.

Finally a storm eventually took it down. I have seen sunscald before, but this was the first time (and the only time) I had ever seen it completely separate the bark from the trunk. Like I said - nothing to do with it being a Liberty - just a fluke event.

 

[Native Hunter]

Here is some fruit on trees that were only topworked last spring.

Hard to believe, but I have already thinned the fruit on this crabapple. I probably removed half the apples.

 

[Rit]

So it’s almost time to start doing this. Do I want to wait until the tree is actually putting on leaves or when the buds start to swell up? My buds are partially starting to open.

 

[Yarg]

So it’s almost time to start doing this. Do I want to wait until the tree is actually putting on leaves or when the buds start to swell up? My buds are partially starting to open.

 

[Yarg]

I asked this question last year and someone replied when the leaves are about the size of squirrel ears lol..
You are probably going to be doing bark in lay graphs so that technique should be done when the bark is slipping.. you probably have a good couple of weeks window to do it. You definitely want the leaves out and I would find a callery pear near your farm to test. And even practice on.. you don't have to use your scionwood but use a twig and get the feel of it. cut the top off a 1' sapling then score into 2"section down from The cut edge and see if the bark peels away on the tree.. it should lift with little pressure.. that's what they referred to as slipping.. and that's when you want to graft.

 

[Native Hunter]

Good advice from Yarg.

 

[Telemark]

I really need to learn this top working that you are talking about. I have some Callery pear trees in really great stand spots.

I got over three feet of growth on some Callery trees grafted in June of last summer. Well worth the effort. I'm expecting big results over the next few years.

 

[Rit]

Thanks for the feedback. I don’t have anything to practice on oddly enough I only have larger trees around. I think we are getting close though. Here is what it we looked liked yesterday. I have a variety of scions ready. Gate, Kieffer, Gilmer Christmas, and a few Asian varieties.

 

[Rit]

Now we wait and see if it worked. Callery going to Gate The bark is definitely slipping I had no issues pulling it back. The first one I did felt awkward and wasn’t clean but by the time I got to number 3 it was very smooth. I didn’t have any grafting tape so I was using plumbers tape but didn’t love the holding power. So I used a combination of plumbers tape and electrical tape. Is there a typical time frame when these things will start to grow? It’s 70 today but will dip back into the 40s. I have 20 more trees to go.