Planting new grafts

[Mahindra3016]

I have root stocks coming from cummins in spring, I plan on grafting and putting most of them in nursery. I want to add another row to my orchard, probably 6-8 trees this season, I have read about people planting just the rootstock in the spring and bud grafting later, or grafting the next spring, but would anything be wrong with grafting and planting them this spring, they will be close the house and be able to receive basically the same care as in my nursery. I just keep thinking that the sooner in the ground the better.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I see no problem with planting them in their permanent home if you can baby them until they get going. If the grafts dont take you can always regraft them where you planted them.

 

[Northbound]

I grafted a bunch of bud9 in spring. Put in tree tubes and had 95% success. Most are 4' tall in there first year. Now I just need to figure out a trellis system

 

[Jhoss]

I go into nursery with them...in inground roottrapper bags. I think a year or even two in these bags does them a good service in building root wads. I have time to "sweetened" the planting spots by dumping a load of chicken manure which stamps out weeds and grass and fertilizes the ground. By all accounts, once I cut the bags off and water them in that 2nd or 3rd planting year they are basically maintenance free (aside from spraying and trimming) and they take off big time.

I get the premise of grafting and immediately planting them for sure, but I do like to water regularly that first year just to make sure they are going/growing hard.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I graft put in roottrapper bags for few months then plant in July or August and keep watered. Can even wait until September

 

[Jimmy G]

What size roottrapper bags?

 

[DrDirtNap]

Last year I used AMLeonards 5 gal root pouch bags. The trees grew off well but I haven’t planted them yet in the field so I don’t know what the roots look like. I’ll be planting in the field in the next few weeks.


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[aerospacefarmer]

What size roottrapper bags?

5 gallon are fine but i also have 7 gallon

 

[Mahindra3016]

I actually started a lot of pears from seed last spring directly in raised garden beds, i dug most of them up and gave them away and they were pretty easy to dig up and save most of the root system, besides the apple rootstocks that i might directly plant, i may do the raised bed thing again, seems to be a lot less maintenance watering ect than pots, and i don't think i have ever had a fall planted dormant bareroot tree not make it the next spring.

 

[KylePa]

Going to start grafting with 20 rootstocks. I have a number of raised beds for my garden that I was going to plant the trees in for the first year. Do I just baby them all year in the raised beds, and then dig them up the following spring to go into their new home? Anything I am missing by doing it this way?

 

[Jhoss]

I prefer the in-ground root-trapper bags.

 

[Jhoss]

Here's what they look like in the nursery.

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks for posting that. I need to get learned up on it as well. Now is the main benefit of the in-ground root trapper bags so that they can hopefully root down into the soil better? I guess that is my hope. I can water mine all summer, but not for a 10 day stretch during the hottest part of the summer. So I assume that might be a deal breaker for using above ground pots, as a hot spell would surely have them dried out. Do the in-ground bags just pull out by hand when you're ready to rock either in fall or early next spring? Then you're planting a potted tree? Thanks... going in as a virgin nurseryman.

 

[chickenlittle]

I prefer a raised bed. My backyard is wet in the spring. I have done some pots. Above ground, i worry about watering and cold damage if the potted tree is not planted out that fall. In ground pots remove those concerns. Skipping pots is just simpler for me as the trees do well and dig up easy from the raised bed. If i decide to up my rootstock purchase, I'll need another raised bed. I might pot some instead of making a new bed.

 

[gunfun13]

JHoss,
What size do you use for the root trapper bags? Are they reusable?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Going to start grafting with 20 rootstocks. I have a number of raised beds for my garden that I was going to plant the trees in for the first year. Do I just baby them all year in the raised beds, and then dig them up the following spring to go into their new home? Anything I am missing by doing it this way?

Sounds like a reasonable approach. Just need to be careful with roots when you dig up for replanting to final home

 

[Northbound]

Those in ground bags look nice. But I to am curious about reuse? I justify my time spent grafting as saving money. If I start buying bags for every tree it's less cost effective.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I prefer a raised bed. My backyard is wet in the spring. I have done some pots. Above ground, i worry about watering and cold damage if the potted tree is not planted out that fall. In ground pots remove those concerns. Skipping pots is just simpler for me as the trees do well and dig up easy from the raised bed. If i decide to up my rootstock purchase, I'll need another raised bed. I might pot some instead of making a new bed.

Bags can be brought inside also to a garage for protection against killing cold weather. So cold damage wouldn’t be a problem. I wintered over a few last year and they were fine and I planted in early spring and they did great.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Those in ground bags look nice. But I to am curious about reuse? I justify my time spent grafting as saving money. If I start buying bags for every tree it's less cost effective.

The white bags are definitely reusable and work great and the roots don’t take a beating when replanting

 

[chickenlittle]

Bags can be brought inside also to a garage for protection against killing cold weather. So cold damage wouldn’t be a problem. I wintered over a few last year and they were fine and I planted in early spring and they did great.

My wife won't like hearing her parking spot in the garage is needed for apple trees. Much easier to leave the trees outside.