yoderjac
5 year old buck +
After reading the articles (listed below) on nut grafting American Chestnuts, since I had all the ingredients, I decided to give it a go. This thread is to report on what I did and on what the results were.
http://www.accf-online.org/chestnut/nutgrafting.htm
http://www2.volstate.edu/tnchestnut/...ingbasics2.pdf
http://mdtacf.org/linksfiles/Mayfiel...20Mar%2007.pdf
On March 24, 2013, I started with an exacto knife, fresh cut scions (last year's growth) from my two American Chestnut trees, and germinated nuts from the same trees.
I cut the ends off the nuts, cut the scions in sections with one bud each, and cut wedges on the bottom ends of the pieces of the scions. I then cut into each nut bisecting the petioles (round circles in roughly the center of the nut). The petioles were (before being cut) connecting the root to the two cotyledons.
I then firmly inserted the scions into the nuts. It would have been better to not have the cuts go all the way to the outsides of the nuts but I didn't have a square-ended exacto knife blade. In a couple of cases I used airplane glue to seal the scion in place.
I wrapped the grafts in squeezed-damp paper towels, placed them in a sealed sandwich baggie, and placed them in a desk drawer at a room temperature of 70 degrees. I had them on their sides but should have had them verticle so the roots would grow down away from the bud end.
In about three weeks the petioles regrow outward forming stubs. This picture was taken on April 4, 2013. Cauliflower-like knobs form at the ends of the petiole stubs and the new roots grow from the knobs! The center graft has a root starting while the right graft shows well-developed petiole knobs.
Once the roots have started to grow I planted the grafts in peat moss in biodegradeable pots. The roots are buried just below the surface while the scion with bud is left exposed. I watered with rain water and placed them in indirect sunlight inside of a sealed baggie at room temperature. Every day or two I opened the baggie to let in fresh air and to check moisture levels, watering when necessary. This picture was taken on April 5, 2013.
On April 9, 2013, I have my first swelling bud!
A great way to propagate a blight resistant American chestnut right there!!
By April 14, 2013, the bud had burst and four leaves had rapidly grown. When the bud first burst open I placed the graft where it could get full sunlight for as much of the day as I could manage, most of the time inside but some of the time outside.
What advantage does this technnique give the tree? I guess you would get the traits of the tree you got scion wood from, but will it grow any better or produce faster than a seed tree. It's very interesting either way please keep us posted
On April 20, 2013, I transplanted the first budded graft into a two-gallon root maker pot. Here I show the root development.
And here is the transplanted graft.
Ultimately I got 6 grafts to take out of 12 tries. One didn't bud out for over two months! Below is a picture of 5 transplanted grafts taken on May 6, 2013. By now they are receiving full sun and a periodic watering with rain water. I'm using Miracle Grow Potting Mixture with a light monthly supplement of acid-type fertilizer.
The same plants on May 29, 2013.
And again on July 13, 2013.
Since the above picture there has been very little additional leaf growth, however, the stems have continued to put on girth and I'm sure the roots have continued to grow. Below I show a close-up of the stem and root interface structure as of August 5, 2013. One question I have is how do these turn into trees? So far the grafts are growing like limbs, i.e. they seem to prefer horizontal growth. The buds did not open up and grow straight up. Some hormone for vertical growth must turn on at some point. Anyone out there have any experience with this?
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Originally Posted by Hardwoodshall
What advantage does this technnique give the tree? I guess you would get the traits of the tree you got scion wood from, but will it grow any better or produce faster than a seed tree. It's very interesting either way please keep us posted
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First, you produce a clone of the original tree so it has all the exact same characteristics of the original tree. So if the original were blight resistant the clone would be too. Second, it seems possible that since (as I pointed out in my last post above) these clones seem to think they are branches they might "bloom" much earlier than a seed tree. That is essentially my question about what hormones will be in control of the future growth. This is my first try at this so I honestly don't know. In the articles I cited they show small cloned trees but I can't remember if anything was said about when to expect nut production.
Very cool!!!
Yea that's definately cool.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by indianasam44
First, you produce a clone of the original tree so it has all the exact same characteristics of the original tree. So if the original were blight resistant the clone would be too. Second, it seems possible that since (as I pointed out in my last post above) these clones seem to think they are branches they might "bloom" much earlier than a seed tree. That is essentially my question about what hormones will be in control of the future growth. This is my first try at this so I honestly don't know. In the articles I cited they show small cloned trees but I can't remember if anything was said about when to expect nut production.
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Also, it can be a great way to get future scion wood off those nut grafts if many of a certain chestnut are needed.
Be a great way to spread around a blight resistant chestnut.