Starting Apples from Seed Indoors - How To

[yoderjac]

I've continued to chip bud a few trees each evening. The root stalk I'm using is getting smaller, but I think I'm getting better at it. I'm not sure if the first few will take, but the trees seem strong enough to put up a new central leader if they don't. It looks like it is time to take the next step. I took a few that looks promising and decided to transplant into 3 gal RB2s. Here is the step by step.

The tree before I started:

If we zoom in you can see why I chose this one to start with:

This happens to be Centennial chip budded to a seedling grown from Wickson seed. You can see one of the chip buds is turning green and breaking through the parafilm-M.

Next, I took a 3 gal Rootbuilder II and put my mix in it. My mix has 50% promix and 50% either mini pine bark nuggets or composting bark from my pile. I used the latter in this case. I then add 2 capfuls of osmocote to it and mix. The 2 capfuls assumes I'm using 1 3 gal RB2 container of each in the mix. This yields enough for two transplants. I put enough mix in a 3 gal RB2 so that I can set the 1 gal RB2 in it and the mix level in the 1 gal is about even with the top of the 3 gal.

Next I remove the tree from the container.

You can see how this tree is in the right range for transplant. I could keep it in the 1 gal longer if I wanted, but to maximize growth it is best to transplant to the 3 gal on the early side verses the late side. You can see how the 1 gal RB2 container directs the roots that hit the bottom of the container to the sides where they are air pruned. Since they will be able to grow downward in the new container for a bit, I sort of loosen those bottom roots pulling them downward a little.

I then put the root ball in the 3 gal RB2 on top of the mix. I then add more mix around the sides of the root ball to fill the 3 gal RB2. Here is the finished transplant:

We will see if the centennial bud graft fully takes in the next few weeks. By the way, I'm also beginning to transplant all of the seedling about now whether grafted or not. I'll do a few a day starting with the largest ones. When the root balls get less developed than the one shown in the picture, I'll stop and wait a week and then continue.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Looks like a few of these are showing promise. Here are the best two:

In a few days I'll remove all those leaves and flowers from the lower bud that also took on the top one.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[chickenlittle]

I'd wait a little while longer to see if the top bud wants to fail. Maybe pinch the end of the bottom one but not remove it yet.

 

[yoderjac]

I'd wait a little while longer to see if the top bud wants to fail. Maybe pinch the end of the bottom one but not remove it yet.

Thanks for the suggestion. The reason I'm waiting is because I don't trust that top one yet. However at the rate it is growing, it shouldn't be too long.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[chickenlittle]

I've had a fair number of nice looking Tbuds turn brown on me this spring. I think it's partly due to the wet weather. I'm being slower to pinch of the 2nd bud than I intended.

 

[yoderjac]

It has been a while since I've updated this thread. Here is a quick summary if you don't want to read back.

• Started some trees from crabapple seed 3 winters ago.
• Planted them in the field the next fall.
• The following spring I tried field grafting some with known varieties but left some nurse branches to see what kind of fruit the seedling would produce.
• Only a couple of those grafts took.
• Last winter I started a lot of apples from seed using a number of varieties of apples as the source. with father unknown.
• I tried grafting a bunch of them in the spring while still in rootmakers. Most failed, probably too young, but a handful took and made nice trees. I planted those last fall.
• I then tried chip-budding and t-budding some of them in the summer. Some I did nothing with. I overwintered them in my cold room.

That brings us up to date as of yesterday. I took all of the budded trees out of the cold room and put them under lights. I want to see if any of the budding took. I also took some trees that were not yet grafted out of the cold room. I'm starting to graft them. So far, I've grafted 6 trees. Two of each of the following: Coop 11, Coop 41, and Coop 37. I hope to graft more in the upcoming days.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I've been continuing to graft a few apples each evening. I went to the farm and collected a few scions from the trees I previously planted. I was able to get Blacktwig and VA Crab (Hewes) scions. I still have some GRIN scions left but I've been using these the last few days. Here is what things look like so far:

The two in the front are dead but the rest have been grafted.

Last summer I found a grafting tool on alibaba. It was dirt cheap and the seller was willing to take paypal, so I figured I'd risk it. I tried it a few times last year but most of my grafting was done before I got it. I've used it a lot with these apples:

It takes some getting use to but probably does a better job than I do by hand. I think they call it a saddle graph where V is cut out of the rootstock and scion. Like a whip and tongue, the size of the rootstock and scion must match.

I'm now running out of matching sizes. So, I decided to try a new kind of graft ( http://growingfruit.org/t/new-technique-to-graft-when-the-scion-is-bigger-then-the-rootstock/1469). The link shows it used where the scion is larger than the rootstock. I just reversed it to go the other way. Here is my first try:

We will see how it works. It looks like I'll be doing more of these.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I grafted a bunch more today. I found a few matched and used the tool, but most were grafted using that graft I mentioned in the previous post. Lacking a good name for it, I'll call it a side graft. I still have more trees to graft but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. No sign of any grafts taking yet.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

It looks like one of my budding grafts has taken:

It is a 589425.04 - Desyealyx bud. I'm presuming when you bud in the summer and it opens the following spring, all of the callusing is done. So, I removed all of the parafilm. This was not done using parafilm-m. I found that it does not wrap tight enough and last long enough for budding. This other parafilm is hard for buds to break through but you can wrap it tight and it lasts. On this particular graft, I did not cover the bud. I did on many others.

Do you think I should go ahead and remove all the parafilm from these bud grafts now?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Hearing no recommendations, I decided to remove all the parafilm from the T-budding. What a failure. Only the one in the picture above took. As I removed the parafilm from all the budding I found that the grafts had all callused but all had signs of powdery mildew on the grafts under the parafilm. None really look like they have any chance of success. Looks like I'll be regrafting all these trees if I can find scions. I just ordered more from GRIN, but I may be too late for this year.

It could be that my budding technique was just that poor, but I think the more likely culprit is disease. Many of my apples on the deck last year had a bad case, but some trees showed no signs of powdery mildew. By the time I figured out what it was, it was probably too late. I treated the best I could and cut the trees back before overwintering them. The only real signs of powdery mildew now indoors is around the grafted buds.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I've been out of town for a while. When I came back I found some of the grafted seedlings are starting to show signs of life:

Only a few have started but this is promising.

 

[yoderjac]

I had time to take a closer look and count of my seedling grafts to day. So far, 7 of them have green buds or shoots. Most but not all were from the first couple days of grafting. Most but not all were on Wickson seedlings. All were grafted using the tool shown in a post above. So far, none of the seedlings I grafted using a side graft or bark graft show any signs of life.

I transplanted the one T-bud that succeeded from a 1 gal RB2 to a 3 gal RB2 tonight as well. The next week or so should be interesting!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I had only 1 of 30+ seedlings that were budded last year take. Most got regrafted using different bench grafting techniques this month. So far, of 69 bench grafted trees, 10 or about 14.5% show promise. By show promise I mean that it has either green buds or has gone a bit further and developed small green shoots. I've learned to wait quite a while before declaring the graft a success since scions can bud out and grow a bit without the graft taking. It has only been a week and a half since the first grafts were done, so there is still plenty of time for more to take.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Things are progressing slowly. Nothing that has greened up has died back yet. I'm up to almost 19% with green buds so far.

 

[yoderjac]

Todays check moves the "promising" number up to 23%.

 

[yoderjac]

Three of the grafts that show promise in 1 gal RB2s have about 3" of growth. This is enough to have a high probability the grafts will take so I transplanted them to 3 gal RB2s today.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

My percentage of promising grafts is still under 30% but those that took are all looking good. Here is a pic of a few:

The one in the center foreground is the only bud graft done last summer that took. The rest were all grafted in Jan.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Thanks to one of the gracious members on here who sent me some more scions, I was able to retry grafting some of those that never leafed out. It is still early, but at least one of the second attempt grafts has taken. This puts my percentage slightly over 30%. Of course, many of those that failed put out growth below the graft so those seedling will get another shot next year after they grow out. They will also provide scions for my seedling fruit trials: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/another-hairbrain-apple-idea-interstem.8808/

So far, I have 22 grafted seedlings that have taken or show promise. Those 22 represent 9 different varieties.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I just thought I'd update this thread with the latest picture of the grafted apple seedlings:

Thanks,

Jack