yoderjac
5 year old buck +
As many know, I've been experimenting growing apples from seed. The idea is to introduce some genetic variability into my permaculture. The odds of getting a productive apple are not great. My first attempt was to plant the seedlings in the field and then graft them to known varieties leaving some lower branches of the original tree. The idea was to ensure that the trees are productive while seeing what the seedlings can produce on their own. If one of the lower branches produces a good wildlife apple, I can then use that branch for future grafting. ...Well, that was the idea. Details are here: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/starting-apples-from-seed-indoors-how-to.6613/
The issues I've found so far.
Hair brained idea:
How about interstem grafting? This would be a non-traditional use. What if I took M111 (appropriate clonal rootstock for my clay soil) and took scions from my seedlings and grafted them to the m111. This should give me a semi-dwarf tree. I could grow these out for a year in containers, over winter them and then bench graft them high with a known variety. This interstem of my seedlings could then produce the lower branches.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Jack
The issues I've found so far.
- Seedlings started in the winter don't generally have sufficient roots to push scions. While my most vigorous seedling accepted scions, most didn't. Also, if you bench graft them, you lose the lower limbs of the original tree which was the point of starting from seed.
- Leaving nurse branches when field grafting young trees tends to make the tree want to push new growth rather than feed the scion. Some of this may be due to different leaf-out times. At any rate field grafting success was poor.
- When I overwinter the seedlings and bench graft the second spring, I've had good success in graft takes where I have a match between rootstock and scion diameter but poor success with mismatched grafting techniques. Again, bench grafting means you lose the lower limbs.
Hair brained idea:
How about interstem grafting? This would be a non-traditional use. What if I took M111 (appropriate clonal rootstock for my clay soil) and took scions from my seedlings and grafted them to the m111. This should give me a semi-dwarf tree. I could grow these out for a year in containers, over winter them and then bench graft them high with a known variety. This interstem of my seedlings could then produce the lower branches.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Jack