When to graph apples

[Yarg]

When doing clef, whip and tongue and Bud grafting when is the preferred time... Before leaf out, after bloom

 

[Honker]

“When the leaves on the rootstock are as big as a squirrel’s ear.”

 

[yoderjac]

When doing clef, whip and tongue and Bud grafting when is the preferred time... Before leaf out, after bloom

The type of graft can matter but also the situation. When bench grafting to rootstock, it is often done with both rootstock and scion dormant and allowed to callus before planting. When field grafting existing trees, many grafts can be done before trees break dormancy or after. I would not want a hard freeze to occur after grafting. When field grafting you might want to consider both the scion and what you are graft it to. For example, I grew some Siberian Red from seed and planted them in the field and let them grow a year and then grafted them high with known varieties. Depending on what I was grafting to them, I found that Siberian Red will break dormancy very early compared to some of the known varieties I grafted to it. When I go into the field in the spring now, I will find all kind of vegetation growing for almost a month while the buds above the graft are just beginning to swell. If I grafted trees like this when both scion and rootstock were dormant, the tree would put most of its energy into pushing new growth from the rootstock (as the do now) because the scion wasn't ready to accept energy. This makes it less likely the graft will take. Once these grafts have taken and are well established, the early leaf out below the graft is not a major problem. I remove most of it, but keep at least one branch so I can see what kind of apples the seedling would produce. By waiting until about the time when the known variety would leaf out and then removing all the vegetation from the seedling, the graft would have a better chance of taking because both the seedling shoots and scion would be ready to accept energy much closer in time. The scion is always delayed somewhat because the graft needs time to callus, but the tree also wants to send most of its energy to the highest growth.

So, all of the above applies to scion alignment type grafting. Bark grafting is different. It requires the sap to be running for the bark to peel properly. It depends more on good pressure between the bark flap and the scion than cambium alignment.

I'm no expert on budding. I've only tried it a few times without much success. Others may want to address it. It is my understanding that chip budding can be done when both are dormant. T-budding is typically done late, during the active growing season.

Thanks,

Jack