It seems like just about perfect time for grafting apples. We are probably done with hard frosts, the understocks have not started blooming yet but budes are starting to swell in some.varieties. Now three of the espaliers have grafts for new tops - so now the Zestar will have top tiers of Rubinette, Calypso will have top ties of Otterson, and Honeycrisp will have top tiers of Gala. I chose Gala because it's a good variety that I know I like, Rubinette is a great variety, very delicious, that's grows well for me but isn't available in stores, and Otterson is supposedly the darkest red apple grown - possibly smaller and less vigorous than others, so it seemed like a nice top for Calypso, which I suspect will also be less vigorous.
I also grafted Duchess of Oldenberg onto Milo GIbson. I might want to discontinue the Milo if the apples are no more special than last year, in which case I will have a new top of it from the graft of Duchess.
Lastly, I had a graft of a red flesh apple on Geneva 222 rootstock last year, but I don't want it. So I top grafted that one with Opalescent, a historic apple that I like and have a small graft of on a multigraft tree, but it isn't getting much of a chance. I'm not sure where this tree will go if it does well, but there are choices.
I also started putting on some new labels, that have the probable harvest dates.
Here are most of the grafts so far. All except the Otterson are whip and tongue. The Otterson was too small so I did a cleft graft for that one.
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