My first year I got about 50% on apples. It’s definitely something you get better at with practice, don’t be discouraged if you fail more than you succeed this year. My success went way up after year 1.
First time apple tree grafting with some questions.
- Thread starter Adittmer
- Start date
Northbound
5 year old buck +
I did and had 2 of 6 that took. Pears I figured where just hard like stone fruits. Maybe it was some winter kill now that you mention it.
Unfortunately I don't know that they will make it this spring though. We had much more snow than normal which brought the rabbits into my nursery as snow was over the fence they walked right in. My estimate is that I lost 300 plus grafted trees between one and three years old due to rabbits getting in. Talk about ways to make a grown man cry...... I spray flex seal on the bottom 24" which keeps mice off (mice can get in the chicken wire fence) problem was the snow was far over that 24" depth and rabbit's had some good eating while on their snow shoes
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
Ugh that's terrible news. Hope you get a pleasant surprise, but I'm sure you have a decent handle on it. I have just a handful of good scions left still in the fridge, if you need a few to start baling yourself out of that situation. I have some Querina Florina and Goldrush at least.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
You guys are way ahead of me. I am waiting for rootstock and might graft in a few weeks.
Does anyone have a handful of grafting bands they could mail me?
My best luck was the year I used them. A dozen would be enough.
I know... cheapskate, and I should order a bag full. I always think this is my last year of grafting. At age 64, when should I quit?
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Does anyone have a handful of grafting bands they could mail me?
My best luck was the year I used them. A dozen would be enough.
I know... cheapskate, and I should order a bag full. I always think this is my last year of grafting. At age 64, when should I quit?
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
Hey Bur, Fedco use to sell a T-shirt that said Plant till your Planted.I'm 65 and plan on grafting till I'm too feeble to hold a knife.
I gave my uncle a chestnut crab for his 80th birthday and he picked lots of apples off of it.
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Well I got the last of the rootstock grafted this morning. It went quicker today after I sharpened the knife and I also found out the baby bottle warmer works great for heating up the grafting wax
I ended up getting a little girl cut on my knuckle on the last graft
Hopefully all goes well.
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I ended up getting a little girl cut on my knuckle on the last graft
Hopefully all goes well.
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blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
The rootstock on the 6 pears I grafted have started to bud out, but no luck so far on any of the scions. I'm thinking my first attempt was a failure, but I'm still holding out hope they might surprise me.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Rub off the rootstock growth except for one bud. Try to force it to push the scion while still keeping the rootstock alive.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
I took your advice and tried it. I'm hopeful it'll work but I noticed that the scions are starting to turn a darker color. Fingers crossed!
Mine last year were anywhere from 5 days to 3 weeks. I grafted a number around 10 days ago at this point and around 40% are showing Green. It seems to be by variety as well. All of my Lodi, Chestnut crabs are showing life where my Goldrush, Empire, different crabs aren't. I am curious as well as I am relatively new to the grafting game as well.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
Several of my varieties are showing green in the buds now as well. Others like Enterprise and Goldrush look totally dormant. Columbia was the 1st to waken, followed by Kerr, then Yates, then the pears Kieffer and Johantorp the last day or so. I still don't think we'll know if they take for a few weeks yet, when they can prove it by pushing growth. They have a good amount of energy in the scion for now. My basement has been running 59/60. I just move them back and forth between there and the dark garage depending on where it's cooler. They'll get some refrigeration in the garage now for the next 5 days and nights. Right or wrong, that's my take anyway.
Your trees look really good. What kind of graft did you use? I prefer cleft graft since that seems to require the least operator skill!
I grafted last year for the first time and I used red splendor crabapple seedlings as rootstock and I went 18/18. My seedlings had really big roots and I think that helped. I had a few that had no scion growth for a couple months and I thought they were dead, but then they woke up and pushed out new growth. I let my grafted trees heal for a couple weeks in a bucket that was filled with wet newspapers and wet leaves/straw. It seemed to work well. Then I planted them in pots and placed them on the east side of my barn so they would get some sun every day, but not the scorching afternoon sun. I'd say that the new growth averaged around 2-3 feet by the time they went dormant in the fall.
Your B118 rootstock looked great - I ordered B118 for the first time this year and I hope mine arrive that big.
One thing I'll recommend though is to label them using something other than masking tape and a sharpie. I did that last year and by late summer the ink washed off 1/2 of them so I planted quite a few unknown apple varieties. I bought some plastic labels that I'll try with sharpie markers this year, but when I plant them on my land I make a permanent label with an aluminum blank and the apple name added using a punch set that I bought on Amazon for cheap.
I grafted last year for the first time and I used red splendor crabapple seedlings as rootstock and I went 18/18. My seedlings had really big roots and I think that helped. I had a few that had no scion growth for a couple months and I thought they were dead, but then they woke up and pushed out new growth. I let my grafted trees heal for a couple weeks in a bucket that was filled with wet newspapers and wet leaves/straw. It seemed to work well. Then I planted them in pots and placed them on the east side of my barn so they would get some sun every day, but not the scorching afternoon sun. I'd say that the new growth averaged around 2-3 feet by the time they went dormant in the fall.
Your B118 rootstock looked great - I ordered B118 for the first time this year and I hope mine arrive that big.
One thing I'll recommend though is to label them using something other than masking tape and a sharpie. I did that last year and by late summer the ink washed off 1/2 of them so I planted quite a few unknown apple varieties. I bought some plastic labels that I'll try with sharpie markers this year, but when I plant them on my land I make a permanent label with an aluminum blank and the apple name added using a punch set that I bought on Amazon for cheap.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Ditto on the tagging, and if you buy tags make sure they are uv resistant I still have about 2600 in a roll that are almost worthless because by late summer they are starting to fade. I only use them as a temp label now, went to aluminum (foil)tags and soon will do thin aluminum cut and either stamped or pressed with a scribe as a more permanent method. Nothing worse than having lost labeled or faded labels = unknown trees.
Another thing, dont give up on your grafts too soon, I have thought the graft wood was dead or not taking only much later to find it leafing out and I mean much later as in a month or so later.
I pot or direct plant them out no matter what and let them run their course, in the end - none the less I will have root stock to graft to next year if the grafted scion fails.
Another thing, dont give up on your grafts too soon, I have thought the graft wood was dead or not taking only much later to find it leafing out and I mean much later as in a month or so later.
I pot or direct plant them out no matter what and let them run their course, in the end - none the less I will have root stock to graft to next year if the grafted scion fails.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Im not an expert, and there are others here that can maybe better voice in; My first question would be where do you live - and what are you talking about for temps? I graft mine, put them in wet saw dust in what amounts to cold storage for about a week to heal the grafts with no movement - just making sure their roots are damp... honestly it is just a super large cooler. I then transfer them to pots and keep them in a semi shaded area for most of the summer (an area I can water and check on them as needed) I have direct planted them and they did fine as well - last year I kept them in the back garden until I heeled them into the ground in the nursery out at the farm. They are in racks under a pine tree that provides some thermal protection and nearly all day shade but no too much shade. By the time (in a normal year) I get them out of the cooler and pot them out it is usually mid april and the temps are pretty stable. They usually have not bud swelled much and will take a week to 3 weeks to bud break which puts me into May before the really start to leaf and even better temps. But Im talking roughly 100 grafted trees so that is just what is easier for me. If I had a dozen then I would graft them, let them heal, pot them and keep them in the garage by the door with windows, then move them out to the shaded area by the door, if there was a chance for a hard frost I would move them back in. By mid may I would have them out in a mostly shaded area, fenced and trunk protected. That is really all I would do...
I live in Wisconsin and it’s been cold this week, we just got a good size snow storm. I’m guessing it’s 35-38deg in the garage currently. No windows in our garage so I’m going to have to wait till the weather breaks. Unless you guys think I should move them into the basement by the sliding glass door in a few more days to a week. Probably 60 down there right now
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