Limb Grafts

[greyphase]

After the loss of over half of my bench grafts because of potting them in fresh mushroom mulch (a lesson I won't forget :mad:) the bright spot of this years grafting has been my limb grafts. Here's a few pics of my successes.

An Arkansas Black.

Canadian Strawberry.

Liberty.

Grimes Golden.

With the success of my limb grafts I know that my grafting "skills" are OK and am already planning on next years bench grafts.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Yep. Good job.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

You convinced me to try that on some of my old native trees

 

[Rally1148]

Were these all cleft grafts?

They look great!

 

[greyphase]

Were these all cleft grafts?

They look great!

Yes the pics are all cleft grafts. I did some bark grafting too. This is the first year I tried bark grafting and had about a 50% success rate.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Was the mushroom mulch new " hot " stuff ?? Not aged & composted ?? Limb grafts look real good, Rick.

 

[greyphase]

Was the mushroom mulch new " hot " stuff ?? Not aged & composted ?? Limb grafts look real good, Rick.

Yes it was "fresh" mushroom mulch. It was a hard lesson to learn so now I'll have to graft even more trees next spring to make up for this mistake :D:D.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Do you have access to the older aged stuff ??

 

[Rally1148]

Yes the pics are all cleft grafts. I did some bark grafting too. This is the first year I tried bark grafting and had about a 50% success rate.

Only 50%?!? That's odd. I did 2 bark grafts this year and had only 50%, but that's also a super small sample size. But I had almost 100% on bark grafting for the first time this year. I think the two that failed didn't get enough sun, so they didn't get their leaves out. But I haven't yet given up on them because the buds started swelling a bit.

Any particular reason you did cleft rather than bark?

 

[greyphase]

Only 50%?!? That's odd. I did 2 bark grafts this year and had only 50%, but that's also a super small sample size. But I had almost 100% on bark grafting for the first time this year. I think the two that failed didn't get enough sun, so they didn't get their leaves out. But I haven't yet given up on them because the buds started swelling a bit.

Any particular reason you did cleft rather than bark?

The size of the limbs that I was grafting to were better suited (I thought) for cleft grafts. This was my first year for bark grafts and will definitely be trying again next spring.

 

[Rally1148]

I think mine were so small that they were probably better suited to a cleft graft, but I heard that it was harder (i.e. lower % success). Yours sure look great!

 

[sandbur]

NW Greening on a flowering crab.

 

[sandbur]

I did a bunch of limb grafts a number of years ago on my old place. I did whip/tongue, but that was well before I had learned much about grafting. I had pretty good success rates using W/T though...actually better than the rootstocks/scions I did back then. Those trees were my first attempts at creating a "Frankentree"...gotta get back to trying that again at some point

Come over and give me a hand on the flowering crabs, or on the T-buds that are supposed to arrive this summer!

 

[sandbur]

August will be here before you know it. Time is flying by this year. Days are already getting shorter.

I doubt you can get enough water to make the bark slip on this light soil in August. I tried last year. My grin order got converted from scion to T-buds.

 

[sandbur]

There's got to be a point this fall when the bark slips. Right? That's when you'd do the t-buds.

Can it get to be too late in the season at some point?

We have had dry falls and summers. Hopefully not this year, just reasonable amounts of rain.

I saw my first center pivot irrigator running on the way to work this morning.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Can it get to be too late in the season at some point?.

Yes. The bud needs to heal into the tree before the tree shuts down for winter. I would say at least 21 days before the first killing frost, maybe even before that. I cant say that I have ever seen in print a definite amount of time.

 

[sandbur]

Yes. The bud needs to heal into the tree before the tree shuts down for winter. I would say at least 21 days before the first killing frost, maybe even before that. I cant say that I have ever seen in print a definite amount of time.

Do you T bud onto any age of growth? This year versus last year or much older?

 

[Turkey Creek]

The last year or two of growth. Older growth is going to have thicker bark and be harder to work with.