I’m still fairly new to grafting into apple rootstock. I normally order m.111 and do a cleft or W&T graft onto them. Does anybody have pictures of their grafted apples trees in the early years. First few years up until first fruiting? I want to add a bunch of apple trees to my hunting property and want to graft them all by myself. TYIA
Grafted Apple Trees
- Thread starter Luongo43
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5 year old buck +
Was going to take pics of my 1-3 year old grafts, but got home too late after dark.
Sandbur's crabapple timeline and the grafting adventures of crazyEd should have a few trees over the years. Progress can vary significantly based on soil conditions, watering, weather, and care. A tree sprayed to contain insects can grow faster than one that is not.
What I have at home is probably best case scenario. Watered weekly, fertilized, soil site well prepared, sprayed 3-4 times a year, most trees are in 6ft tall cages. Trees at camp might be close to worst case scenario, poor soil quality, nature only watered, sprayed once a year.
Sandbur's crabapple timeline and the grafting adventures of crazyEd should have a few trees over the years. Progress can vary significantly based on soil conditions, watering, weather, and care. A tree sprayed to contain insects can grow faster than one that is not.
What I have at home is probably best case scenario. Watered weekly, fertilized, soil site well prepared, sprayed 3-4 times a year, most trees are in 6ft tall cages. Trees at camp might be close to worst case scenario, poor soil quality, nature only watered, sprayed once a year.
great info right there! what do you fertilize the young tree with? Next season I want to start adding fert to mine! and what do you spray them with?
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5 year old buck +
I use agriform tablets in the soil. Dig the spot for the tree, then push a stick to make some small holes even deeper. Put about 5 or 6 21gram ones in. I put one tablet in the bottom of a 3 gallon grow pot for trees at camp or gifts. Grated trees at home have been going in right where they'll live.
Switching what I do for fertilizer ater soil tests. But been using a coffe cup of 12-12-12 for each year it's been in the ground. This is for bought trees. Sprinkled around the drip line. New planting I have been addingfertilizer to the ground as I rototill. Same as lime. Basically .0006 acre. If I recall right it was about 3-4 coffee cups on lime and a coffe ecup of 6-24-24 This is about 6ft by 4ft wide and about 3ft deep. tried to go for 2 tons an acre of lime and about 500 lbs acre of fertilizer. Got about 3ft of growth te 1st year. These spots were done in the fall/winter then settles in for the srping. I added what I could to my heavy clay soil. Old potting soil, leaf clipping, woodchips fro ma tree service, a gallon or two of peat moss. If I like the tree more, I used more peat moss and soil. Soil has close to 4% organic matter, plently of npk, but is heavier clay.
Spraying. I spray my trees with neet oil before bud break. Try to spray new tree orders tooo once planted. Walk around the trees after work couple times a week I see critters, I start spraying. I mainly use malathion. I have been using the bonide tree spray purple bottle Just either use 3oz / gallon for my 1st spray, or use their nomral amount and add 2oz/gal malathion to the mix. The bonide tree spray has malathion in it. I live in NY where almost anything is banned, but home depot has it in NY.
I ordered immacloprid but have not used it yet. It is alot nasitier stuff. I did purchase a used military supplied air respriator. A 3m ezflo. Basically a poncho. Wired up a milwakuee battery to it.
Malathino works great and is not that nasty for you versus the immadin. I use goggles and a 3m respirator from home depot Yellow/purple cartridges. Purple is organic vapor part.
I have a backpack sprayer that applies chemicals A solos 452 gas powered. Basically a leaf blower n a tank. echo and stihl makes htem too. Got this on clearance for about $350. I have 1 gallon sprayers with extension wands from amazon. Works just fine for the 1st 4 or 5 years. Some folks just spray the first couple of years to get some size on the tree. Spraying helps alot.
Ihave sprayed copper on my cedar trees and a tree or two that gets cedar apple rust. I haven't done that in a year or two. Besides 2 pristines, a droptine, and a golden delicious I pruchase trees that are more or less disease resistant. Mcintosh, macoun, and I believe empire may need to be treated for scab maybe. Scab can get nasty, but often is just cosmetic to the apples. Likely 95% of my harvested apples will be used for sauce or baking. Got doubles of liberty, enterprise, empire, sundance, and galarina. Likely making a graft of the sweet 16 I ordered. PRetty sure that is disease resistant. Debate whether I am digging up droptine or topworking it. Base of droptine is a bit bigger than a shotglass. Granny smith has curly leaves, not sure whats up with that tree. Golden delicious will be topworked, not sure into what. Likely keep a nurse brnach or two around too see how bad the cedar apple gets. Leaves do not look happy. Pristine is by my early season tree section. Neighbrs are cranberry and williams pride. Hoping to get some redfree scion for it.
Switching what I do for fertilizer ater soil tests. But been using a coffe cup of 12-12-12 for each year it's been in the ground. This is for bought trees. Sprinkled around the drip line. New planting I have been addingfertilizer to the ground as I rototill. Same as lime. Basically .0006 acre. If I recall right it was about 3-4 coffee cups on lime and a coffe ecup of 6-24-24 This is about 6ft by 4ft wide and about 3ft deep. tried to go for 2 tons an acre of lime and about 500 lbs acre of fertilizer. Got about 3ft of growth te 1st year. These spots were done in the fall/winter then settles in for the srping. I added what I could to my heavy clay soil. Old potting soil, leaf clipping, woodchips fro ma tree service, a gallon or two of peat moss. If I like the tree more, I used more peat moss and soil. Soil has close to 4% organic matter, plently of npk, but is heavier clay.
Spraying. I spray my trees with neet oil before bud break. Try to spray new tree orders tooo once planted. Walk around the trees after work couple times a week I see critters, I start spraying. I mainly use malathion. I have been using the bonide tree spray purple bottle Just either use 3oz / gallon for my 1st spray, or use their nomral amount and add 2oz/gal malathion to the mix. The bonide tree spray has malathion in it. I live in NY where almost anything is banned, but home depot has it in NY.
I ordered immacloprid but have not used it yet. It is alot nasitier stuff. I did purchase a used military supplied air respriator. A 3m ezflo. Basically a poncho. Wired up a milwakuee battery to it.
Malathino works great and is not that nasty for you versus the immadin. I use goggles and a 3m respirator from home depot Yellow/purple cartridges. Purple is organic vapor part.
I have a backpack sprayer that applies chemicals A solos 452 gas powered. Basically a leaf blower n a tank. echo and stihl makes htem too. Got this on clearance for about $350. I have 1 gallon sprayers with extension wands from amazon. Works just fine for the 1st 4 or 5 years. Some folks just spray the first couple of years to get some size on the tree. Spraying helps alot.
Ihave sprayed copper on my cedar trees and a tree or two that gets cedar apple rust. I haven't done that in a year or two. Besides 2 pristines, a droptine, and a golden delicious I pruchase trees that are more or less disease resistant. Mcintosh, macoun, and I believe empire may need to be treated for scab maybe. Scab can get nasty, but often is just cosmetic to the apples. Likely 95% of my harvested apples will be used for sauce or baking. Got doubles of liberty, enterprise, empire, sundance, and galarina. Likely making a graft of the sweet 16 I ordered. PRetty sure that is disease resistant. Debate whether I am digging up droptine or topworking it. Base of droptine is a bit bigger than a shotglass. Granny smith has curly leaves, not sure whats up with that tree. Golden delicious will be topworked, not sure into what. Likely keep a nurse brnach or two around too see how bad the cedar apple gets. Leaves do not look happy. Pristine is by my early season tree section. Neighbrs are cranberry and williams pride. Hoping to get some redfree scion for it.
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5 year old buck +
Signal fire is a crabapple oaknut on here foud. This was grafted on M111 in 2023. Not as well treated as my other plantings. So this can be typical of average growth for 2 years.
ON the other end of the scale This is a droptine on Anty I bought from Terry at whitetail crabs planted november 2022. Well watered, soil well amended. Think I used a 1/3 of a bale of peat moss on this guy. Also, I well prune my trees. It might be bigger for some other folks.
IN 2022 I bought a bunch of anty rootstocks and planted them at home. Fall of 2022 I dug up most of the rootstocks. January of 2023, my fencing fell down and the rabbits ate the rootstocks. I grafted kerr on the rootstocks. I left one tree in place. Although this is 2 year growth, you could consider that more like 3 years because the rootstock had a year to grow.
ON the other end of the scale This is a droptine on Anty I bought from Terry at whitetail crabs planted november 2022. Well watered, soil well amended. Think I used a 1/3 of a bale of peat moss on this guy. Also, I well prune my trees. It might be bigger for some other folks.
IN 2022 I bought a bunch of anty rootstocks and planted them at home. Fall of 2022 I dug up most of the rootstocks. January of 2023, my fencing fell down and the rabbits ate the rootstocks. I grafted kerr on the rootstocks. I left one tree in place. Although this is 2 year growth, you could consider that more like 3 years because the rootstock had a year to grow.
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5 year old buck +
Spring of 2024 I bought a sundance on M7 from mehrabyan nursery in ithaca NY. I cut about a foot off the top of it to graft 3 trees. I planted a grafted sundance on M111 right next to it. This tree should be a bit taller on that M111. One thing I left the competing buds on that sundance scion grow, so I got 3 tiny leaders. Secondly, I used a small bit of 3ft tall cage and one night a deer nibbled of maybe 6 inches of growth. But, this compares what you can buy vs what you graft at the end of the 1st year. My opinion, do both. You easily get 2 maybe even 3 years head start while ontop of that you have scion material tthe year you buy it or the next few years. Best scion is fresh off the vine...... Sundance is about as tall as the 6ft cage. I recall I amended the soil a bit on the lighter side. These spots are close to flooded areas of my backyard. Didn't want the soil too loose.
Wow awesome pics! I’ve used that nursery for my Rootstock last year and loved the M.111 from them. I plan on trying to graft 50 rootstock this year since my last year take was so great. Just hope next growing season I see a lot of growth. Love to add lots of apple trees to try and attract deer to my hunting property.
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5 year old buck +
I bought 6 or 7 trees from SLN in potsdam NY for their zone 3 offerings. I added 10 siberian crabapple rootstocks. They say they're tougher at accepting grafts, but use them for crabapples. Debating splitting a mehrabyan order with a coworker for a few anty's and maybe some M111 as gift trees. Might add a B118 tree to try out up there. Think they would do ok. Might be transplanting a dolgo on B118 I planted at home spring of 2024. Want to make a little room for saint lawrences best trees for scion material. Not sure if my 5 ace parcel next door is going to be a house for my wife's oldest son son or not. Every apple tree I bought from him is doing great. He also refunded my money in march 2023 when I toremy bicep and couldnt really plant with 1 arm. I did squeeze a few in the ground that spring though.
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5 year old buck +
I do find places I can order both rootstock and grafted trees more tempting to purchase from. Saint lawrence has had siberian rootstock the past 2 years only. 3 years ago I bought anty rootstock from them.
Finding a place that has anty or dolgo roostock is a touch difficult. I do like mehrabyan nursery for that reason. Be nice if they had a few more late season or wildlife apple trees. Even harder to find a place with mulberry trees.
Finding a place that has anty or dolgo roostock is a touch difficult. I do like mehrabyan nursery for that reason. Be nice if they had a few more late season or wildlife apple trees. Even harder to find a place with mulberry trees.
