Completed Grafting. 3.19.2021

 I enjoy making new grafts, a lot.  It still feels like magic, taking a stick (scion) from one tree and adding it to a rootstock or shoot of another tree, and having it grow and become one with it's understock and make fruits.  So I look forward to when the weather and season are right.  I plan ahead, collect scion wood and refrigerate it over the late winter, and order from sources such as Burnt Ridge or Fedco.  This year I ordered a couple unnecessarily.  I was over enthused.  Blame the pandemic.  Even so, all of the grafts are done now.

Apples -

I started converting the Jonathan multigraft back to mostly Jonathan.   Some of the older grafts were not appealing for me (Keepsake and Granite Beauty) so why keep them?  I got to test them out, which is good, and they didn't pass.   Porter, on the same multigraft tree, is very good.  I want to keep it, but it is too vigorous on a Jonathan, so I started the process of cutting that back.  I have a minitree started for Porter which probably won't bear for a few years.

So I pruned off Keepsake entirely.  Granite Beauty had a graftable small shoot that I grafted with scion from Jonathan, then removed the rest of that branch.  Granite Beauty was also too vigorous for that Jonathan.  I also pruned back about 1/3 of the Porter, and grafted two small lower shoots of that with Jonathan scion.  If they take, I hope there is still some good structure and I can get the tree mostly converted to Jonathan.  It will be interesting to see what happens. My scion in the fridge was a little mildewed, so I cut new scion from the Jonathan, seeking stems that had buds that had not started to open yet.

That leaves Priscilla, the rest of Porter, and a large branch of Airlie Red Flesh on that tree.  I want them to bear this year, then reevaluate for whether to leave any of those on or go 100% to one variety in the next year or two.  Priscilla is OK, is disease resistant, and bears well, same vigor as the Jonathan, but doesn't seem too special.

I'm not that crazy about the Airlie Red Flesh now.  It's a decent apple but tends to get scab.  I also have a branch of that on another tree, so that might be enough.  They seem to keep - I had some this week, so at least few kept in the garage to March and that was better than the famous super-keeper, GoldRush.

Pears - I grafted "Dana Hovey" onto a branch of "Rescue Pear".  Fedco describes Dana Hovey as "Small...  rich golden-yellow russeted pear. Possibly the best eating of all winter pears. Keeps extremely well."  That tree needs some pruning and shaping. Pear grafts usually take very well.  I thought a winter pear seemed like a good idea.  Usually a lot of the summer pears spoil on the tree.

I had some rootstock left over from last year, Geneva-222 that had a graft of Fuji Beni Shogun that didn't take.  I think the Geneva wood was too thick and hard at the time for a whip-and-tongue.   It was still alive so I cleaned it up and put on a new graft with William's Pride.   This time, a cleft graft.  The William's Pride scion was skinny, so we'll see.   I don't know what I'll do with it if it takes.  There are usually some trees that die or I give up on them, so there will be a replacement ready.

I also added grafts to two of the Chestnut trees.  One goes on the "Marissard Seedling".  I planted that tree about 4 or 5 years ago before I understood that a chestnut seedling may not bear for many years, compared to a grafted tree, and that it may not make pollen (that variety), and that there is no assurance that it will even make nuts.  That tree is upwind of the 3 other chestnut trees, so I want it to make pollen if nothing else.  Last year I grafted the four lower branches with Precose Migoule, Marigoule, and Marivale.   That way, if one or two are not compatible, there are still the other(s).  Those all seemed to take.  This year I added Primato.   Primato is reported as early ripening, which would be good here in WA State.  The branches are so high, I stood on the bed of the pickup truck to graft it.  That scion was more than pencil thick, and hard.  I don't know if it will take.  I also bought scion of the variety "Bisalta #3".  I added that to the Easternmost tree, the Precose Migoule. I thought it might be useful some time in the future to take over the tree if that one continues to have nuts that are (a) quite a bit smaller and (b) fall from the husk, allowing animals to eat them.  If nothing else, two of the four chestnut trees now have potential pollen producing branches within the tree, so wind direction and insects are less of an issue.

I also added one more black cherry graft to the North Star pie cherry tree.  That's a sad looking tree, due to a giant maple fell on it a month ago.

That's all of my Spring Grafting for the year.  Apples, Pear, Cherry, Chestnuts.  Mostly some whip-and-tongue but also a couple of cleft grafts.

Cross Species Pear Graft Update. 9.29.2020

 Along with the apple grafts, I wanted to try some pear grafts.  Again, this was for making miniature trees.  However, I'm not aware of sources for miniaturizing pear trees. There are some less conventional ways.  Serviceberry, Hawthorn, and Aronia are pear relatives, although different species.  There is some info from the fruit growing hobby community that pear can grow with these as rootstocks.  Also, the apple variety "Winter Banana" will reportedly accept apple scion, so I wanted to try that too.

I grafted European pear onto Winter Banana on a Bud-9 rootstock, and also onto an existing apple tree branch.

I grafted European pear onto two varieties of Serviceberry, and onto a Chinese Hawthorn and onto a Black Hawthorn.

I grafted Asian pear onto Aronia.

Nothing took on the Serviceberry.  

The European pear did very well on Chinese Haw, growing about two feet.  Here is the graft, a little irregular but it looks OK.  That shoot is actually below the graft union, and is Hawthorn.

 The graft on Winter Banana on Bud-9 did not grow.  The graft on Black Hawthorn did not grow.

I lost track of the other two, because of location.  Now, I started Fall cleanup as well as picking apples, and discovered the Asian Pear on Aronia.  It didn't grow much, but then again (a) it took, and grew some and (b) it was buried in snowpeas and volunteer four o'clocks, and (c) it was not watered all summer long.

The European Pear on Winter Banana on an existing apple tree, did take and grew a little.  Again, not a lot.  I'm not sure what to do with this - I don't need a pear on an apple tree.  I might try cutting the graft at the Winter Banana and graft that, with the already healed pear graft, onto Geneva 222 or Bud 9.  Maybe the Pear/Apple graft needed more vigor to heal together, than the Bud-9 can provide but now that it did, it will grow.

Since these were sort of hidden and forgotten, I never got around to removing the graft binder ziplock strips.  That's most likely fine, but I'll do that today.

Grafting Update. 5.11.2020

Most of the apple trees that I grafted this winter are here, on north side of a raised bed.  5.11.2020

 This year I wanted to create a mini-orchard of apple trees, grafted onto miniaturizing rootstocks.  The resultant apples will be normal size and flavor, just on miniature trees.  I can manage those trees without a ladder.  In general, when full size they will be 5 to 7 feet tall. Some apple cultivars are quite vigorous.  For those, I grafted onto the very dwarfing "Bud-9" rootstock.  For apple cultivars with a little less vigor, I used "Geneva 222" rootstock, which is still quite dwarfing but not as much so as Bud-9.

These trees will be in containers until this winter.  I can give them more TLC this way, and move them into shade if the summer is too hot.

I also did some more iffy experiments, grafting pear onto related species that might result in miniaturization.  I don't have experience with that, although you can find it on some websites.  I grafted pear onto aronia, serviceberry, and Chinese and Black hawthornes.  Also onto Winter Banana, which is an apple variety that supposedly is compatible with pear, so I grafted the Winter Banana onto either Bid-9 or onto an established apple tree, Winecrisp.  So far, it looks like the pear on Winter Banana on Winecrisp is taking, but maybe not too enthusiastic.  Ditto for the pear on Winter Banana on Bud-9, even less enthusiasm, and Pear on Chinese Haw.  The others don't appear to have taken.

To keep some Winter Banana, I grafted that onto a Jonagold Tree.  I thought the description sounded interesting.  I also grafted Winter Banana onto some Bud-9.  By the way, Bud-9 is short for "Budagovsky 9" which is a cold hardy Russian origin rootstock.  Winter Banana is an apple, not a banana, but somewhere along the line, someone thought it was yellow like a banana, or something.

This is a whip & tongue graft of "Winter Banana" apple onto a Jonagold tree.  5.11.2020

This is a graft onto a Winecrisp apple tree.  I grafted a "Winter Banana" interstock, with a pear scion.  5.11.2020

I also grafted all three of the chestnut cultivars onto the tree that I bought a few years ago, that was a seedling of Marissard.  Buying the Marissard seedling was a mistake.  Seedlings are unpredictable, may never bear, and if this tree is like its parent, might be pollen sterile.  Also seedling chestnut trees can take 10 years to bear, while grafted cultivars might bear in two or three years.   But it's too big to give up on, and who knows?  Maybe it will have decent chestnuts some day.

I decided to graft onto this tree, scion from my other three young, grafted cultivars.  Two of those trees have already produced first and even second year chestnuts, and the third has made male flowers with pollen.  The challenge is, I read that chestnut grafts often don't take on other chestnut rootstocks.  I used scion that I collected from Marivale, Marigoule, and Precose Magoule.  I had to climb on a ladder to graft these.  It looks to me like all took.  There can be delayed incompatibility, but so far, so good.  They are even producing male flowers.  The photos below show three of the grafts.  These were all whip & tongue grafts, wrapped / bandaged with 3/4" strips cut from zipper lock freezer bags and the exposed scion wrapped less tightly, with parafilm.

In the long run, it might be best to order some scion of other types to graft on other branches, and remove most of the top from this tree, other than the grafts.  We'll see what it does this year.

Chestnut Graft.  5.11.2020

Chestnut Graft.  5.11.2020

Chestnut Graft.  5.11.2020

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

Grafting Projects in Home Orchard. 2.19.17

New Pear Grafts.  2.19.17

Healed plum whip and tongue graft at one year, done in 2015

It seems seems early, but with buds already swelling, I wanted to get some grafting in.  I think I've done it this early in the past, mid to late February.  Most of the scions are refrigerated in plastic bags, and will keep for several more months if needed.  It's OK if the understock tree is already growing, and for some, that is an advantage.

My grafting goals this year:

• Preserve a few varieties from my old trees in Vancouver, so I have them in my new trees in Battleground.

• Make something more useful out some of the scrubby Hawthorn trees, by converting them into Chinese Haw trees.  This is an experiment.

• Add pollen sources to grow internally on some trees.  I've noticed that the tiny pollinating insects tend to go from flower to flower within a tree.  By having pollen sources in the same tree, maybe there will be better fruit set.

 • As usual, I want to add some novel varieties.  Those will be added as I receive scion, especially the apples from Fedco and possibly some from Home Orchard Society.

•  Seedling fruits may start to bear sooner if grafted onto a mature, bearing fruit tree.  That gives a chance to evaluate the seedling variety several years sooner than letting it mature on its own roots.

• By creating multigraft trees, I have more varieties in less space than I would if they were all on their own rootstocks.  You get pollenizing  varieties for better fruit set, and potentially widely spaced ripening times so that instead of bushels of one apple type all at once, you can pick various types from July to November.

• Taking scion from your own trees, they are free.  Buying scion is usually much, much cheaper than buying trees.  Scion from scion exchanges is also free.

Healed apple whip and tongue graft at 6 months, done in 2014.

Grafts so far.  All of them are whip and tongue.

1.  This week, I grafted pear varieties, I think Anjou and Bartlett, from the old multigraft.  Whatever they are, they are good pears, delicious, proven in this area.  I added both to both of the new pears in my Battleground yard, Rescue and Orcas.

2.  I have a tiny Honeycrisp apple on M27, which is way to dwarfing for that variety.  After maybe 10 years it is still only 2 feet tall and gets one or two apples a year.  I took scion from that "tree" and grafted onto a more vigorous Winecrisp apple tree, one year old on a more vigorous semidwarf rootstock.

3.  I grafted two variegated burgundy on green plum seedlings, from plums that I bought in 2015, onto 2 of the younger plum trees - Toka (onto a rootstock sucker) and Ember.  I grafted one onto the Sweet Treat Pluerry.  I also grafted an American plum seedling onto Ember plum, to see if that would pollenize that tree.   I also grafted some variegated plum seedling onto a higher branch on Methley plum tree.

4.  I grafted several Chinese Haw scions onto suckers or younger trees in the Douglas Hawthorn woodlot.  I hope they take and make those into something productive, and maybe also not grow so top heavy and fall over like the original trees have been doing.  Both are in the Hawthorn genus, Crataegus, so I imagine they will take.

5.  To the Maxie hybrid Asian-American pear, I added Hamese and Hosui.  Last year I added Rescue and unknown Asian Pear from the Battleground yard.   I may convert that Rescue branch into something else, such as Shinseiki or Nijiseiki.  I don't need a bushel of one variety of Asian pear to ripen all at once, and it's nice to have multiple types ripening at potentially different times.

5.  Pending:  3 apple varieties from Fedco, and if I am luck some persimmons from Home Orchard Society.  I have more apple varieties now than I need, so for the most part I'm not planning to add more.  If I'm up to it, I  might make more use of some of the Hawthorne seedlings / suckers as experiments.  Hawthorn appears to be closely-enough related to pears that some pears can be grafted onto some hawthorn rootstock.  Some do better than others.