UPS Guy made me GRIN

[greyphase]

Finally got my scion order from GRIN. I'd sent my order in August 28 :eek: and was getting a little "concerned". Got everything I had ordered. All very nice sized with one variety of Kaz apple smaller than the rest, but they sent 3 pieces of that variety.

The UPS guy also brought me another "toy". It's a Craftsman Edge Utility cutter. I saw it mentioned on the Growing Fruit board and then Chris (Turkey Creek) ordered one and was impressed, so I followed suit and ordered one. I've been playing with it this morning and can see that with a little practice it will be a big improvement over the "whittling" I do with my Opinel knife. This sucker uses a heavy duty razor blade to give you a nice straight cut on your scion. I always struggled to get a nice straight cut on my scion to fit flush with the rootstock. Everyone has their own way of cutting scion that works best for them and I think I've found mine. :)

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Hey Rick - When you make the cut, do you place the scion parallel with the blade so that the cutting blade is going down thru the scion from the same point we are viewing the pic from ?? Can you post a pic of scion positioning ?? Thanks. Great cuts by the way !!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Super clean cut and so straight. That should improve your yield. Do you have a link to that tool? What varieties are your scions? Do you just use that tool to cut at an angle?

 

[greyphase]

Super clean cut and so straight. That should improve your yield. Do you have a link to that tool? What varieties are your scions? Do you just use that tool to cut at an angle?

Here's a link, but you may be able to find it cheaper in a Sears store.
http://www.amazon.com/Craftsman-9-37309-Edge-Utility-Cutter/dp/B0037IX2BG

I cleft graft and it seems to cut the angle on the scion and split the rootstock equally good.

I have about 50 new varieties of apples to graft this year so I won't try to list them all. :eek:

 

[greyphase]

Hey Rick - When you make the cut, do you place the scion parallel with the blade so that the cutting blade is going down thru the scion from the same point we are viewing the pic from ?? Can you post a pic of scion positioning ?? Thanks. Great cuts by the way !!

Mark

Here's a couple of poor pics. Hope they answer your question. Still need to practice to get longer cuts with it.

 

[sandbur]

Stu liked a Roberts Strip Cutter. It is somewhat similar.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I do like it! I think it has some good uses. I need to practice with it a bit more before I get into the thick of grafting this year. Beats the heck out of my current method for splitting the root stock for cleft grafts. I think it will work fine for W/T grafts on 1/4" or smaller stock as well. I think it will find plenty of uses in the off season as well. Seems well built, decent price and the ease of changing to a fresh sharp blade is great.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Yes I saw it in Sears online for 22 bucks. I think I will pick one up tomorrow and thanks for the pics. I was asking what varieties you got from GRIN not all you were grafting this year

 

[greyphase]

Yes I saw it in Sears online for 22 bucks. I think I will pick one up tomorrow and thanks for the pics. I was asking what varieties you got from GRIN not all you were grafting this year

From GRIN:
Scarlet Nonpareil A very fire blight resistant old British dessert apple with a late harvest season
Greenmeadows Cox's Orange Pippin A very fire blight resistant sport of Cox's Orange Pippin
Lord Lambourne High quality British dessert apple
Clear Gold A Golden Delicious limb mutation with a very resistant fire blight rating.
Weidners Goldreinette A German dessert apple with a late to very late harvest season and light to medium fire blight rating
Crandall A Rome Beauty X Jonathan cross. Dessert & culinary apple, keeps in storage till April. Productive, early bearing, relatively disease resistant
Kaz 96 05-04
Kaz 96 06-03
Kaz 96 07-03
Kaz 96 09-02
The Kazakhstan apples were selected for showing good disease and insect resistance and because their from the "Motherland" of apples. :)

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Thanks Rick sounds like you did your homework. Good luck. Seems you will be the king of varieties!!!! You will be the top scion supplier lol

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks Rick, for the pix of the scion cutting. That tool makes a nice cut. Off to Sears on Monday !!

 

[Turkey Creek]

One thing I have noticed lately is that variety descriptions (on the GRIN site) and the GRIN rankings for fire blight often contradict each other. I wonder if that is not a result of local growing conditions? I was rereading info on the varieties I got this year and was shocked to see how many things I ordered were moderately to highly susceptible to fire blight. Which is odd because I know if I had seen that info originally I wouldnt have ordered some of the varieties that I ordered.

 

[greyphase]

I am guessing the people at GRIN infect the tree with fire blight to test it for resistance??? Like a "perfect storm" scenario. In real life conditions a tree that tests positive for fire blight under their conditions might not be as hard a tree to grow as it seem??? Just my thoughts. Although I do check out the fire blight resistance on the GRIN website and tend to lean toward resistant trees I have gotten scion for trees that had little resistance to FB. Hey I figure even though a tree has little FB resistance if it's been grown for several hundred years it must not be all bad. :)

 

[aerospacefarmer]

One thing I have noticed lately is that variety descriptions (on the GRIN site) and the GRIN rankings for fire blight often contradict each other. I wonder if that is not a result of local growing conditions? I was rereading info on the varieties I got this year and was shocked to see how many things I ordered were moderately to highly susceptible to fire blight. Which is odd because I know if I had seen that info originally I wouldnt have ordered some of the varieties that I ordered.

Did you find any fire blight on any of those trees yet? Sometimes I see in one article that a variety is disease resistant then I read a description on another site and it says it susceptible Many contradictions as in anything so I just go for what I like.

 

[sandbur]

I wish they had more information on CAR.
That is part of my research study is to test for CAR. GRIN says very little about it.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I wish they had more information on CAR.
That is part of my research study is to test for CAR. GRIN says very little about it.

CAR never seems to be a problem for me or I should say major problem since it doesn't seem to affect my fruit and the trees seem to recover. I guess I am lucky

 

[Turkey Creek]

Did you find any fire blight on any of those trees yet? Sometimes I see in one article that a variety is disease resistant then I read a description on another site and it says it susceptible Many contradictions as in anything so I just go for what I like.

No they were scions I ordered this year, so I wont know for a year or two. I think I only ordered two varieties of apple last year through GRIN, mostly pears. This year I didnt get my pear order because of the quarantine in place for Corvallis this year. While CAR is an issue in many areas, I think it is generally not a tree killer unless the tree is extremely susceptible and placed in very close proximity to cedars. CAR is probably one of the easier diseases to control, I think 2 sprays is pretty much enough for commercial fruit production, depending on that springs weather conditions. From what I have read CAR does not spread within the infected apple trees through a growing season. It takes direct contact from the spore as it leaves the cedar, which is fairly short window. I am not saying that CAR resistance isnt something to be sought, but that it often isnt a deal breaker like a fire blight prone tree is.

 

[chickenlittle]

I doubt they purposely test for fireblight since their mission is to keep the trees alive and available. I think they note it in bad years. With any of these diseases, rust, scab, fireblight, there are so many variables we won't really understand. The strains of bacteria and fungi vary from place to place. Local conditions and tree health. Weather and microclimate. A healthy tree for you might be a problem somewhere else.

As with anything, you need to cross-reference but there will never be all the info you want. The descriptions and GRIN field data may not match but that's better than no info. At some point you just need to decide whether to try a variety or not. Ive tried to avoid bringing in highly fireblight susceptible trees but nothing is completely resistant to it.

 

[chickenlittle]

I wish they had more information on CAR.
That is part of my research study is to test for CAR. GRIN says very little about it.

They probably don't have an issue with CAR it at their site.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've had fireblight on my ornamental pear at my home and it can HAMMER a tree !! Thank God no FB at camp. CAR on my Profusion crab in my yard at home puts some spots on the leaves, but doesn't seem to affect the fruit. FWIW.