Yeah I deff wouldn't plant the graft line below ground, I'm grafting to a rootstock for a reason.
I've never tried this, but I've always wondered about it. What would happen if one planted an apple on semi-dwarf rootstock with the graft an inch above the soil. At this point the tree would grow as a typical semi-dwarf tree and produce fruit in accordance with that timeline. Now here is the "what if" part. Suppose after the tree started fruiting well, you mounded soil around the tree well above the graft. Would it produce it's own roots and eventually become a full sized tree? Would it keep up the fruit production or would it revert to vegetative growth for a while before continuing fruit production?
A few years back, I took a grafting class at a local orchard. The old Master Grafter teaching the class told us all kinds of stories about what they did when he was young. There were times when they wanted a full size tree grown on its own roots. He would graft a scion to clonal rootstock, plant the tree upside down with the graft union below the ground. He said the clonal roostock would keep the tree alive long enough to produce its own roots and then eventually die because it was upside down but by then the tree would have enough of its own roots to survive.
He also spoke of running out of rootstock and simply digging up some roots from a tree on clonal rootstock and grafting directly to a root.
I find it all interesting.
All this came to mind today. I called the orchard and they said they had M111 in stock so I headed over. A few years back, when I took the class, they were toying with the idea of selling scions so I asked if that every worked out. They told me they tried for two years but it just didn't work out so they don't sell them any more. I was just going to grab a half dozen rootstock for some scions I grabbed from the farm, but they happened to be finishing the grafting class for this year as I arrived. They were kind enough to give me some leftover sticks of Arkansas Black and Black Twig, so I bought a dozen M111.
I spent the afternoon grafting. Some of the scions from my young trees were pretty small and some of their M111 were pretty large in diameter. So, I tried a new graft, a Z-graft. Here is a video:
I think it may have been discussed here before. It took me a while to get the hang of it. Most of the scions had a diameter match with the root stock, but for those who didn't, I tried the Z-graft. It doesn't seem as tight as a W&T but seems to have more cambium contact than a single sided W&T. Because it is not as tight, I think it will benefit from some pressure so I used grafting rubbers rather than freezer tape. Time will tell how the Z-graft works for me.
Anyone else tried it?
Thanks,
Jack
