Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
All right this looks like the second year in a row for this problem and it has me stumped. My grafting success for crab apple varieties (Hewes, Dolgo, Chestnut)was very poor last year and this year is starting to shape up the same. I walked the rows in the nursery yesterday and you can see that the buds began to leaf out on many of my Hewes, Dolgo and Chestnut crab apple grafts and then died. I would guess at this point I am batting 95% or better on all other varieties. With 100s of grafts these got all treated the same from the get go. Scion wood came from my own trees. Success look much better on scions for crab apple varieties that came from outside sources. Prior to 2 years ago I had the same success rate straight across the board no matter the variety. The only thing I can think of is that maybe I am collecting my scion wood a bit too late. I figured that the trees were better storage systems than my scion fridge, but maybe that is not the case? Maybe the buds are breaking before the callus is formed? I will have to monitor them more closely next year from collection to planting and see if I can spot the issue.
Anyone else have issues with crab apple varieties over other apples?
Anyone else have issues with crab apple varieties over other apples?