Grafted 20 rootstock on St Patricks day, put them in a bucket with soil and stuck them in a basement closet that has no light and stays low 60s temp wise. About 10 days later I noticed buds swelling on a couple so I moved them to the garage which is considerably colder but gets a small amount of light. After a few days out there temps started to dip with lows near 20 forecasted, so back into the basement for the last week. Now almost all are breaking bud, and temps are forecasted to hit well below freezing at night. What's my best course of action now? Leave them in the basement? Stick them in a window upstairs? Back to the garage and hope they don't get too cold? Total newbie to this stuff.
Grafts are breaking bud-what next?
- Thread starter gunfun13
- Start date
Guys - you worry too much. Go heel them in the garden because the cold temps will not hurt the graft. Unless it gets down to single digits for a couple weeks and no sap flows, then you may have an issue. If it gets above 32 or 28 and sunny, you will have plenty of sap running to the graft to heal and push buds.
DrDirtNap
5 year old buck +
But what about those tender buds and small leaves coming out? They are definitely susceptible to frost/freeze damage. I’m in a similar situation. Mine are outside in individual pots. I plan on making a frame around my 24 pots and covering it with plastic and then leaving a light bulb inside of the enclosure tonight. Might be overkill but I’ve got too much time invested in this project to let a freeze damage them.
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Diesel5610
5 year old buck +
My first year with grafted trees also. Mine have stayed in a bucket of peat moss in the garage. Temps have only dipped to the mid 20's some nights and it doesn't get that cold inside the garage from what I can tell. Hoping it all works out. Interested to hear what some of experienced guys think.
I am in the same boat as well. I am a newbie at grafting. A few have buds swelling and breaking but some look the same as they were when I grafted them. They have been in my dark cellar with temps in the 40s probably since they were grafted. When should I worry they don't wake up? Sorry for hijaking the tread but looks like a few newbies on here.
The newly opened buds/leaves can easily handle temps in the 20s. I think you're more likely to harm them by NOT getting them in the ground once they start leafing out than by planting them with some freezing weather in the forecast. If you can't get them in the ground keep them dark and cold.
If I understood the above question about when to worry about not leafing out, I would not give up on them anytime soon. I planted a keiffer pear once that did not leaf out until the first week of July. I thought it was dead and planned to return it. When I finally got time to go retrieve it to return it I found it leafing out. It has since grown well and is making fruit.
If I understood the above question about when to worry about not leafing out, I would not give up on them anytime soon. I planted a keiffer pear once that did not leaf out until the first week of July. I thought it was dead and planned to return it. When I finally got time to go retrieve it to return it I found it leafing out. It has since grown well and is making fruit.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
I can't speak for NE PA, but I've done a lot of reading using the search function, and my guess is most guys would say to start acclimating them to the garage, and then the front of the garage or near a window, and then some time outside each day in the shade. It's probably a little safer to error on the "hair early" side of things than to try and plant them fully leafed out. But be careful not to shock them or the roots with major temperature changes, including soil temps. Now this could very well be overkill, but personally I feel I'm already facing a low batting average on my 1st attempt here, and so I'm going to play it careful and do all I can within reason to help the good ones. I still need to decide whether to build up a raised nursery bed, or just fence off a little section of the yard. My edge of town lot sits on top level black dirt, so I'm not sure what a raised bed would accomplish for me.
I had some breaking bud the the other day that have been in my garage for the last month. We have a significant warm-up coming this week so I planted them. If they are not completely leafed out then I don't think they require gentle acclimatization (although if they were going to stay potted for a year I would do what mortenson suggests).
I just hate the idea of pulling them out of dirt and damaging the roots if they are actively growing). For my trees I either plant them in their final destination in early spring or put them in big pots which I keep in my back yard and can baby for a season before transplanting. But I hate keeping them in the garage once they're showing green. Just my two cents, might not be the best way of doing it but it's what I do.
I just hate the idea of pulling them out of dirt and damaging the roots if they are actively growing). For my trees I either plant them in their final destination in early spring or put them in big pots which I keep in my back yard and can baby for a season before transplanting. But I hate keeping them in the garage once they're showing green. Just my two cents, might not be the best way of doing it but it's what I do.
