Apple Grafting ?

[wooduck]

0

 

[leexrayshady]

I have never t-budded only bench grafted / rind grafted in the spring, main advantages to this is with the roots in your hand its easier to sit and bench graft than have to kneel on the ground to bud. However t-budding does look easier and I am going to try it this summer. plus you only need one bud to t- bud vs. 3 or 4 to do other types of grafting.

 

[CrazyEd]

I like to bench graft in spring and then any bench grafts that dont take t-bud in august. T-budding is easy but yes it is a PITA crawling on the ground to graft.

 

[CrazyEd]

T-budding to trees in roottrappers/pots of some sort is much easier on the knees than doing so to rootstocks in the ground

Right but if you're insane like me you cant afford and don't have space for 125 root trappers per year :)

 

[sandbur]

I try to limit my apple projects to about a dozen trees per year.

I think I will be over that for this year, plus I have 600 conifer plugs to go in the ground.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I am getting itchy when do you guys start grafting. I think I started in February last year or early March. Is that possible?

 

[CrazyEd]

I am getting itchy when do you guys start grafting. I think I started in February last year or early March. Is that possible?

I started late March in 2014. This year my roots will ship first week of April.

 

[Turkey Creek]

The guys at Cummins told me to have my grafts finished 3 weeks prior to my planting date, which ideally would be your last frost date. 2 weeks for the graft to callus and then a few days to acclimate your grafts to the outdoors via shaded areas, then into your direct sun growing location. So I guess you can start however early is necessary to give yourself that 3 week window.

 

[CrazyEd]

CrazyEd where do you buy your rootstocks from?

I buy from Cummins.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Benchgraft method I was probably @98% successful last season with whip and tongue and cleft methods. I also tried chip budding on the bench and that was a miserable failure! Most of that failure was do I feel to using only parafilm as my binding material on the chip buds, it was simply not strong enough to provide good pressure on the grafted pieces. I will experiment more with it this year. I tried T-budding a couple of times during the summer and late summer and had poor success with that method as well. I dont think my buds were mature enough the first few attempts and I did not remove the sliver of wood behind the bud because I thought it was unnecessary. Again I will certainly experiment more with that method this coming season.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I had about an 85 % success rate with cleft and whip and tongue with most of my grafts being cleft as the diameters of the rootstock and scion wood didn't match very well in most cases but the W&T grafts that I did were awesome

 

[SmallChunk]

I went 8/8 the first time I tried grafting at our class this last spring, granted one ended up dying mid summer. I took a lot more time making sure everything lined up good and was snug...other guys flew through it and I think they might have had a little less success. In all though, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Time to double down SmallChunk !!!!!!

 

[SmallChunk]

If I had my own land, I would be going hog wild. Planting them at my grandma's with not knowing how much longer she will be there and running out of room to plant...just makes it tough. I plan on grafting a few for friends and family this spring though!

 

[sandbur]

I went 8/8 the first time I tried grafting at our class this last spring, granted one ended up dying mid summer. I took a lot more time making sure everything lined up good and was snug...other guys flew through it and I think they might have had a little less success. In all though, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

I think I was 4/6 or something like that. Good job, Dan at teaching us!
And thanks to Stu and Lee for the good advice.

 

[SmallChunk]

Lee was my coach and he did a dang good job of helping, Dan too!