Grafting Apples and other Fruits. 3.14.2021

 Yesterday I grafted a few scion.  For the miniature trees, after reading about the old variety "Winter Banana" not being that good, I grafted Fuji Beni Shogun to replace it.  So now, that minitree will be Bud-9 rootstock, Winter Banana interstock, with the Fuji Beni Shogun as the top.  I also grafted Rubinette to make the third and, possibly fourth, tier of Zestar.   The Zestar is rather vigorous, so I think that will do well.  This puts the Rubinette into a location where I can pamper it.

I also grafted some wild black cherry onto the North Star pie cherry tree.  That got knocked over by a falling maple, but there are some graftable branches.  Last summer I tried budding that same black cherry onto that same pie cherry tree, and they didn't take.  But that was 2020 and that year sucked for countless reasons, so maybe it was just 2020 and not the grafts.  

I want to remove the Granite Beauty and, if there is a graftable stub, replace with Jonared which is the base tree for that.  I can also replace Keepsake and Priscilla, which are nothing special.  That will make that a mostly - Jonared tree.

I have been thinking about cutting back on varieties, and decreasing the number of multigrafts.   On the other hand, last winter before I decided that, I ordered some scion from Fedco.  Which came yesterday, so now I need to make some decisions.

So what do I do now?

Since ordering these, I actually replaced another tree with Honeycrisp, for Espalier.  So that scion is redundant.  I might stick it onto something else, if there is a space.

Otterson - reportedly the reddest of red flesh, but more for adding color to cider or sauce or pie, than eating.  Will not need a whole tree.  Add to something else.

Gala - I like Gala.  It's modern,  a very good variety.   I have two extra Bud-9 Rootstocks from last year.  I'll graft Gala onto one of those.

Opalescent - a very good heritage apple.  Use the other spare Bud-9 for this one.

William's Pride - replace something else with this modern, disease resistant variety.

Duchess of Oldenberg - replace Baldwin with Duchess.

Hovey is a winter pear - I can graft onto another pear tree.

So:  removing Winter Banana, Baldwin, Priscilla, Keepsake, Granite Beauty.  Converting Jonared + 4 into Jonared + 1 (Porter).  (Long term, when mini Porter is bearing, remove that from Jonared which will then be all Jonared).  Making 3 minitrees, one already done (Fuji Beni Shogun).  New upper tiers on two or three Espaliers. 

This is a lot of grafting.  We'll see how far I get.