deepsleep
5 year old buck +
So I top-worked a bunch of small-fruited seedling crabs to more desirable varieties this past May and wondering how to manage going forward. Nearly all of the crabs started out a foot tall or so from Coldstream Nursery. I harvested scions from my own trees the last week in March, and bark-grafted around May 10. The rootstock trees were mostly 4th leaf and in full bloom. I put 2-4 scions on each depending on diameter. I used mostly scion sticks that were 3 buds long. Most of my scions were about half the diameter of a pencil as I was unable to prune the year before and didn't get a ton of new growth the previous summer. Here is a typical example of tree that was topworked (I ended up doing more than 70 I believe). This is Liberty grafted onto a seedling crab ("Midwest" I believe).
Trees were cut off around 3 feet, or higher if need to preserve a nurse branch.
Scions were inserted as mentioned above and wrapped very tightly with 1/2" grafting tape. All surfaces were liberally coated with Treekote including the tape and cut scion ends. They were rechecked a few hours later and more Treekote applied if needed. By about day 8, the buds were swelling.
2 or so weeks later
After 4-6 weeks, I had my dad cut the tapes to prevent girdling. He said they were pretty tight such that a single vertical slit popped open a mm or 2. Here is that tree at the 2 month mark.
About 2 weeks after this last photo was taken, I was able to get up there. At that time, I chose the best new leader and cut the others back by 80% or so. I also put permanent name tags on rather than the labeled surveyor's tape. I was up to check on them for early antlerless season about 10 days ago. Here is that same tree.
Obviously, I am satisfied with the result. My question is how to handle things going forward. My understanding is that keeping the extra scions helps the stump wound heal faster. Do I trim them back this winter and get rid of them the next? What have you guys done that has worked well as far as healing goes. I am hoping that these trees start fruiting in a couple of seasons.
Trees were cut off around 3 feet, or higher if need to preserve a nurse branch.
Scions were inserted as mentioned above and wrapped very tightly with 1/2" grafting tape. All surfaces were liberally coated with Treekote including the tape and cut scion ends. They were rechecked a few hours later and more Treekote applied if needed. By about day 8, the buds were swelling.
2 or so weeks later
After 4-6 weeks, I had my dad cut the tapes to prevent girdling. He said they were pretty tight such that a single vertical slit popped open a mm or 2. Here is that tree at the 2 month mark.
About 2 weeks after this last photo was taken, I was able to get up there. At that time, I chose the best new leader and cut the others back by 80% or so. I also put permanent name tags on rather than the labeled surveyor's tape. I was up to check on them for early antlerless season about 10 days ago. Here is that same tree.
Obviously, I am satisfied with the result. My question is how to handle things going forward. My understanding is that keeping the extra scions helps the stump wound heal faster. Do I trim them back this winter and get rid of them the next? What have you guys done that has worked well as far as healing goes. I am hoping that these trees start fruiting in a couple of seasons.
