Sunday, April 16, 2017

Graft Progress Report. New Grafts and Some Old Ones. 4.16.17

European Plum Yakima, Whip/Tongue. One Month.  4.16.27
Here are some of my grafts from late winter and from years before.  There are too many to picture them all.

The European pears here are on what was a new bare-root multigraft.  That may not give them the best start, but at least the buds remain viable after one month and are swelling.  Yellow Egg already had swelling buds, which may be why the new growths appear damaged.  It's wait and see to see if they grow.
European Plum Yellow Egg, Whip/Tongue. One Month.  4.16.27

Asian Pear Chojuro One Month.  4.16.17
 I think Asian and European pears are really easy  The grafts here are added to a tree of the Asian x European pear hybrid, "Maxie".  All but the Chojuro are from my own trees.  The Chojuro was from Home Orchard Society scion exchange last month.  The wrapping is different because I experimented with melted candle wax.  I think plastic strips or parafilm are probably easier to work with but they are all OK for the graft.

The Nijiseiki was from last year and is on a Hosui Asian pear.  It took and grew nicely.

The older grafts are examples of how they look after a few years.  With my plum and apple grafts, most of the graft sites are no longer easy to identify.  They merged together almost seamlessly.

Asian Pear Hosui.  Two Month.  4.16.17
Asian Pear Hamese.  Two Month.  4.16.17

Asian Pear Nijiseiki.  One Year.  4.16.17
 Chocolate persimmon grew about 3 inches last year.  Some species grow rapidly and long, and others take their time.  This year, I suspect it will grow the same as the stock tree, a Saijo persimmon.
Asian Pear Shinseiki.  Cleft Graft.  4 years.  4.16.17

The ginkgo grafts barely grew last year when I grafted them, but the buds remained healthy looking.  The understock did grow new branches.  This winter, I pruned off those new branches.  The first one has bud damage - slugs?  rabbits? voles? but the second one is looking OK.  These are as exciting as any, because they mean that I can keep the ginkgo tree, in a sense, that I grew from seeds that my Dad collected almost 20 years ago.  That tree is around 25 feet tall, so obviously I can't transplant it.  
Unknown European Pear on Asian Pear.  4 Years.  Whip/Tongue.  4.16.17

Chocolate Persimmon.  Whip Tongue.  One Year.  4.16.17
Male Ginkgo on Ginkgo Seedling.  One Year.  4.16.17

Male Ginkgo on Ginkgo Seedling.  One Year.  4.16.17

5 comments:

  1. nice photos of graft. I'll remember to do that next yr with my apples which have a high failing rate since I was concentrating all my energy on the plums. The rain didn't help, which wash off all the healing paint too soon before it was knit together. If I have the tape that wrap better then the rain wouldn't matter. Lesson learned.

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  2. Thank you for the compliment Lance. So far I'm pleased with most of them. The ginkgo grafts have special significance for me and they look very good right now. I think pears, Asian and European, are the easiest, then apple, then plum. So I think you will be happy with your apple grafting efforts. If part of the issue is paint washing off, you can try the tape. I'm happy with using 1/2 inch wide strips cut from gallon Ziplock freezer bags for the tight wrapping of the graft union, and similar 1/2 inch strips cut from less thick plastic food bags, for wrapping the end of the graft. It takes some practice to get them right, but these are basically free, and available everywhere. After that, in difficulty, the successful but more difficult were persimmon, ginkgo, fig. None of the lilacs that I tried, took. I don't know yet about the mulberry grafts that I tried this year.

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  3. Wow, good to know. My tape finally arrive from the online order. Too late to use it but I'll remember to use your method next time that my paint got washed off. What a shame to lost a yr of pear and apple graft due to rain. I never thought of plastic bag wrappings. Silly me, you did mention them on older posts.
    A few apples that took is "Winston"" transparent de Cron" and "Katherine" but the long awaited "yellow Bellfower" and "King David" shows no signs of life.

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  4. http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b499/lancegreen1/graft%20illus_zpslhgreend.jpg
    shows plum graft took
    http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b499/lancegreen1/DSCF9905_zpssuyjxjhy.jpg
    shows fruiting

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  5. Great plum fruits! Mine are much smaller, tiny. I started thinning them yesterday,and the Asian pears.

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