Unusual Apple Grafting Question
- Thread starter yoderjac
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Merle,
The problem is that I'm trying to push the envelope. I want to get a full season of growth. Last time I grew seedlings, I did not graft them in containers but planted them the first fall. The following spring I tried grafting them. I was afraid to prune them much since they were so young, and only had one take. This spring they have one full growing season in the field under their belt and I had much better success grafting them. The down side is that with this approach it is 3 years before I get the graft to grow. The upside is that I graft high enough that I'll be able to keep a couple branches from the seedling below the graft to see what I get.
So, I'm trying to take a short-cut. I started these this early winter from seed. My hope was to get enough growth indoors that I could graft them while still in containers this spring and then get a full season of the graft growing before planting in the field. It seemed like chip budding with dormant buds would let me get the most out of my GRIN scions and would let me graft earlier than you can T-bud.
I think the ones I cut back hard before grafting that took may actually work out. My hope is that I'll be planting some 4'-5' trees by fall with good caliper. Obviously I'm still learning here. Any that don't take are not really a big deal. I'll just let the seedling grow out a new central leader, plant them in the fall and graft the following spring like the others.
Thanks,
Jack
The problem is that I'm trying to push the envelope. I want to get a full season of growth. Last time I grew seedlings, I did not graft them in containers but planted them the first fall. The following spring I tried grafting them. I was afraid to prune them much since they were so young, and only had one take. This spring they have one full growing season in the field under their belt and I had much better success grafting them. The down side is that with this approach it is 3 years before I get the graft to grow. The upside is that I graft high enough that I'll be able to keep a couple branches from the seedling below the graft to see what I get.
So, I'm trying to take a short-cut. I started these this early winter from seed. My hope was to get enough growth indoors that I could graft them while still in containers this spring and then get a full season of the graft growing before planting in the field. It seemed like chip budding with dormant buds would let me get the most out of my GRIN scions and would let me graft earlier than you can T-bud.
I think the ones I cut back hard before grafting that took may actually work out. My hope is that I'll be planting some 4'-5' trees by fall with good caliper. Obviously I'm still learning here. Any that don't take are not really a big deal. I'll just let the seedling grow out a new central leader, plant them in the fall and graft the following spring like the others.
Thanks,
Jack
