Scion from older trees, no water whips.

[bigboreblr]

I grabbed some scion off of a roadside find. There were no water whips. Got a few branch tips, some had fruiting buds on them. Did not have luck grafting stuff like that last year.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Yea that is a bit tougher job. I would say our success rate goes from about 98% on apples to between 40-50%. Stone fruit is even worse and then on top of that some of the grafts will take but the scion just never really pushes any decent vegetative growth. to form a viable tree.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Yea that is a bit tougher job. I would say our success rate goes from about 98% on apples to between 40-50%. Stone fruit is even worse and then on top of that some of the grafts will take but the scion just never really pushes any decent vegetative growth. to form a viable tree.

TC -

Are you saying grafting with branch tips is harder/less likely to succeed than grafting with water sprouts??

 

[Turkey Creek]

Not necessarily just saying that if your only option is grafting old, spurred up wood the success rate goes down considerably. We use new growth on branch tips and water sprouts for our normal grafting and can't say I have ever noticed a difference between those 2 sources.

 

[b116757]

I did graft an older branch that had fruit spurs on it not by choice it was the best I could get the day I cut scion off that tree and one of them did take last year idk if it’s going to actually put out any good vegetative growth this year or not.

 

[Telemark]

I've had a lot of failures due to the same problem. Last year the Korean Giant scions I grafted bloomed and then did nothing. They stayed green until summer but were dead when I checked in November.

I took scions from a gnarly old Callery pear that has good fruit for deer. I'm not holding my breath, but I've seen Callery produce new growth from surprising places, so I'll try it anyway.

Your best bet might be to provoke new growth by giving the tradition a trim this winter if it won't bother whomever owns it.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

I’m still waiting a few weeks to get Scion. Still lows in single digits, or negatives. Finally going to hit 30 this week. When do you typically collect yours?

 

[bigboreblr]

I’m still waiting a few weeks to get Scion. Still lows in single digits, or negatives. Finally going to hit 30 this week. When do you typically collect yours?

Was going to ask others. Past few years were mild here in NY. I've prepped soil this time last year or two.

 

[bigboreblr]

Might be worth it to mini prune. Clean up a piece of the tree to grow scion for next year. Did that with 2 I am watching last week.

Also topworked a tree last year to make scion from so-so stock. Hoping weather gets better to look on how that went.

 

[Telemark]

I’m still waiting a few weeks to get Scion. Still lows in single digits, or negatives. Finally going to hit 30 this week. When do you typically collect yours?

Typically February or March. Collected everything first two weeks of January this year to avoid freeze damage.

 

[bigboreblr]

Typically February or March. Collected everything first two weeks of January this year to avoid freeze damage.

Any way of seeing freeze damage in the current winter you're in. I know what it looks like in the spring. Just got to wait n see?

I'm 5/6 most of Most are zone 4 trees, probably 1/3rd are zone 3 copies of what I have at camp. Coldest I have is -8, at camp 4 hours northwest -23 last week.

 

[Telemark]

I think it's cold enough in Ohio to killed twigs. Here I have some worries, but it doesn't get quite as cold here on the coast usually. But it's darn cold here now. I have lost some potter seedlings this winter, which I've never experienced before.

 

[bigboreblr]

I am looking at my scion list for people and for me. I aggressively prune at home to make the shape right. I'm ok loosing some tree size at home. Probably be cutting back 1-2ft for most of my scion sources.

 

[Telemark]

Looks like I'm going back to Ohio. I can send a few scions to someone who is grafting Callery pear for wildlife. I have a Callery that produces pears a little smaller than a golf ball. I also have a few that grew well on Callery rootstock, but I don't know the varieties.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Not necessarily just saying that if your only option is grafting old, spurred up wood the success rate goes down considerably. We use new growth on branch tips and water sprouts for our normal grafting and can't say I have ever noticed a difference between those 2 sources.

I used to prune a few old apple trees just to get them to produce water sprouts. That new growth of water sprouts was what I used to graft with. I haven't grafted anything for about 6 years now, so that info isn't new and fresh! I read about that method of pruning for new water sprout growth online somewhere .... might have been on here. It was for sure new "wood" - but not proven fruiting wood.