Grafting Update. 4.17.19

First Growth, Northpole Apple on Bud-9 Rootstock.  4.17.19

First Growth, Northpole Apple on Bud-9 Rootstock.  4.17.19

This is the update for tree grafts that I did this late winter.  Almost all have pushed out buds.  As is usual for me, all of my grafts this year were whip and tongue grafts.  I like how straight-forward the method is, once I knew how.  I think any method with good cambium contact, and with good strength, will work.  By using whip and tongue method, if there is a good match in size of scion and rootstock or understock, the cambium heals all around and new bark forms, so there is no bare wound remaining.  The method would not work so well if there is a big mis-match of size between scion and stock, in which case cleft grafting or bark grafting would be better.  But for me, it's almost always whip and tongue.

This year, all of the plum grafts are looking good.  It's only 2 varieties, 3 grafts - two for Black Ice and one for Beauty.  I'm glad to get to try Black Ice, but have some doubts.  Black Ice is an American x Asian plum hybrid, and most of the ones I've grown, so far, bloom but don't set fruit.  I read they need American Plum as a pollinator.  I don't know why Asian plum, which I have a lot of, won't work.  But so far, only Toka has produced.  And that one is almost gone from a canker infestation.  These are grafted onto a tree of Ember, another Asian x American plum hybrid that has never fruited.  The tree also hosts a seedling variety that bloomed this year but doesn't appear to have set fruit.  This tree was created as a graft I did about 6 years ago, grafting Ember onto a cutting of Hollywood plum. 

It's interesting to see one of the Bud-9 (Budagovsky 9, a cross of M.8 x ‘Red Standard’ AKA Krasnij Standard) rootstock pushing some leaf buds on the columnar apple tree grafts that I made.  Apparently Red Standard is also called Red-leafed Paradise or Bud 9, pruduced by Michurinsk College of Ag, Michurin, Russia, in 1946.  I'm guessing there is some Antonovka in there somewhere.

Regardless, it's interesting to see the growth.

Kiwis are more difficult.  The stems are hollow, with a delicate pith center and thin layer of wood with delicate cambium.  I struggled to get these to match, and wrapped firmly.    The other challenge is knowing which way is up.  I don't think they will grow if grafted upside down.  I did some one way, and some the other.  Looks like a couple of those took.

Fuzzy Kiwi Male Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

Beauty Plum Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

 I think this growth is more than the small amount of sugar stored in the little kiwi stick can support.  Therefore, I think this graft took.

It will be interesting to see if any of that growth on the quince multigraft, is a precurser to flowers.  Of course, I won't let the grafts produce any fruits.  But one of the branches was left ungrafted, so I can allow that to make a fruit if it blooms.

I'm very happy with this method of wrapping the grafts.  As described earlier, I used strips made from freezer plastic bags, and over-wrapped the scion ends with parafilm.  They are all looking good.

Black Ice Plum Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

Quince Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

Quince Multiple Trunk Tree, Multiple Whip and Tongue Grafts.  4.17.19

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.

Grafting Progress Report. Plums, kiwis, figs, ginkgo, persimmons. 5.21.16

Male fuzzy kiwi on fuzzy kiwi female.  Graft at ~ 2 months.  5.20.16

Chocolate persimmon on Saijo.  Graft about 6 weeks.  5.20.16

 First graft follow up today for the less typical  - for me - grafts.  All were whip-and-tongue.

The kiwi grafts were quite delicate.  The scion wood is hollow with a pithy center.  It oozes a slimy sap that reminds me of the fruit juice itself.  I have two kiwis, one is the big fuzzy type, and one is the grape-size hardy type.  From my reading, both will probably need a male pollinizer, something some of the nurseries don't tell you.  The scion were from the Home Orchard Society propagation / scion fair.

The fuzzy kiwi graft is looking good.  The growth appears to be past the stage of obtaining nutrients and must have a vascular connection now to the understock.  I usually unwrap scion at about 6 inches or 1 foot of growth, so leaving the graft wrapped.

The hardy kiwi is further behind.  I had trouble determining which end is up and wondered if I got it upside down.  If so, I expect it to rejecct the graft.  Just a little growth so far.

I stored persimmon and kiwi scion in the refrigerator until the understock plants were well leafed out.  I understand that works better for these, less easy, plants for grafting.  Less easy compared to apples and pears, anyway.  I cut the Chocolate Persimmon stick into two scions.  After grafting - all of these are whip-and-tongue - I wrapped the scions completely in grafting tape and overwrapped in parafilm, then covered with aluminum foil to protect from the sun.  After about 2 weeks, I removed the foil on a clouded rainy day.  One graft looks dead and one looks like it's starting to grow.  I cut the lower growth from the stem today, to reduce nutrient competition.

Hardy kiwi male on Ken's Red hardy kiwi.  Graft about 2 months.  5.20.16

My Dad's male ginkgo on seedling.  5.20.16

 The ginkgo scions looked good for a little while, then seemed to die back.  This one has started a little growth again.  I cut back the major growth on the understock, but leaft a few leaves at each point.  I don't know if it will grow and take over.  Intent is to keep enough understock growth to keep it alive, and if the scion is viable maybe it will take over later this year or next year.

The figs were from my old Petite negri fig tree in Vancouver.  I did 3 whip-and-tongue grafts onto the extra Dominic fig tree, which has several stems coming from soil level.  These were scion that I had refrigerated for a few months, well wrapped.  Like kiwi, the scion has a soft pith and is very fragile.  Petite negri establishes slowly from cuttings - for me - and the first tree I started from this variety died 2 winters ago.  No harm trying a more vigorous rootstock.   Of the 3 grafts, one appears to be leaving dormancy.  For cuttings, this is still much to small bud growth to say if roots have started, so same for graft take.  However, these have been at ambient temperature for a couple of months, and I think if they are not deriving nutrients from the understock, they will not swell at all.  We'll see.

The Red Washington (European) Plum - I guess, a NOID - scions looked near dead, but both have taken and grown.  These were also from the Home Orchard Society scion fair.  I added them for the pollination effect,  but in case they are good plums, I should prune back more of the Stanley Plum branches to allow them to grow larger.

I don't have a good macro lens and some of these are small, so some are a bit blurry.

Not pictured, one of the ornamental cherries that I grafted onto wild - likely sweet - cherry rootstock did not take, but the other did.  The other two ginkgos look like they did not take.

Red "Washington Plum" on Stanley.  About 2 months.  5.20.16

Petite negri fig graft at about 2 months.  5.20.16

Grafting Progress Report. Persimmons breaking Dormancy. 4.14.16

Graft Progress.  NOID Asian pear on Maxie. 4.14.16

 These Asian and American pear whip-and-tongue grafts were done about mid Feb, so now at 2 months.  I grafted early beacuse I thought Spring might arrive early.  The Asian variety is growing the fastest, and the American variety is close behind.  The vivid green color stands out against the reddish leaf color of the Maxie hybrid pear understock.

I give the early pear grafting experiment a success rating.  I've read that pears are the easiest fruit to graft, with apples coming in second.  Even so, it's a very rewarding project.

As pear pollenizers, these will likely need 2 to 3 years to bloom.   I have not seen pear grafts bloom one their second leaf, and some not on their third leaf.

Graft progress.  "Rescue" pear graft at 2 months.  4.15.16

New whip/tongue grafts.  "Chocolate" persimmon on Saijo stock.  4.15.16

 I read that persimmons are more difficult to graft, and need some special considerations.  It helps to have understock that is in active growth.  I also read that they should have protection from sun, so that the scion does not dry out before it takes.  We have temps in the 80s predicted within a few days.  I obtained scion for the persimmon variety, "Chocolate", at the Home Orchard Society scion exchange, and kept wrapped in plastic, in refrigerator, until this week.  I did 2 whip/tongue grafts onto Saijo, wrapped completely in parafilm tape, and further wrapped in aluminum foil to protect from sunshine.  They will need checking in a week, but I doubt a take in less than a month if they take at all.

I chose "Chocolate" because (1) they had it, (2) I read that "Chocolate" has some male flowers so can pollenize other persimmons - not likely needed, but interesting to consider, (3) I bought some of this variety fruit at Albertson's last winter and they really were good.  On the negative side, I also read this variety might not have time to ripen in Maritime Northwest cool summer/fall.  This is where grafting is helpful - I don't waste the time, orchard space, tree care, and money, for a full one-variety tree that might not bear at all.

Most of last year's grafts have healed to the point where the graft unions are difficult to see.  They are sturdy, stout branches now (plum) or are on their way to being so (apple).

Hanska plum whip/tongue graft at one year.  4.15.16

Hanska plum whip/tongue graft at one year.  4.15.16

 Persommin update, grafting and observations of growth.

I read that persimmons can be more challenging to graft, compared to other fruit trees.  It is reported that helpful measures include, grafting the dormant scion onto actively growing rootstock, and sheltering the graft from sun until it takes.  I obtained scion of the persimmon variety "Chocolate" at the Home Orchard Society scion fair a few weeks ago, and stored wrapped in foil / plastic bag, in the refrigerator.  Now the existing trees are growing actively, so I cut the scion in half and grafted to two sites on the variety "Saigo".    I wrapped fully with Parafilm tape and covered with aluminum foil.  I may change the foil wrap to something more loose in a couple of weeks, depending on how they look.

The persimmon variety "Chocolate" is reported as having occasional male flowers, which is not necessary for Saijo or Nikita's gift, but might be interesting in the future.  According to Raintree, Maritime Pacific Northwest summers are too cool for ripening fruit of this variety, so I did not want to buy an entire tree.  On the other hand I've tasted "Chocolate", grown in Willammete Valley, and liked them very much.  They are reported to have occassional male flowers, which might be interesting.  Saijo and Nikita's gift, my other two Asian or Hybrid varieties, are not considered to need pollination, however.

The American persimmon varieties are leafing out more slowly, compared to Saijo.  Nikita's Gift is between the two.  There is still potential for frost, but that seems like a minimal risk now.  Saijo has the start of a few flower buds, which emerge on new growth, not directly from dormant stems.

"Yates" American persimmon at 2nd leaf.  4.14.16

Nikita's Gift hybrid persimmon early growth.  4.14.16

Saijo Asian persimmon with emerging flower buds.  4.14.16

June T-Budding. 6.5.15

Apricot T-buds onto plum.  6.5.15

 Today seemed like a good day to T-bud.  I had a day of vacation.  Temp is 80 degrees F.  The bark is slipping very nicely, on plums, apricots, and cherries.

Several of last year's June T-buds on plum, took and put out about 18 inches of growth before winter.  The others all took, but remained dormant until Spring.  All of those have been growing rapidly, good solid robust growth.

Cherries were another story.  Only one Cherry T-bud took.  Maybe they are just more difficult,  and I'm still a novice.   One observation, was that there was a lot of callous formation under the grafts.  The callous seemed to push the grafts off the unions.

Last year I also grafted the cherries in mid July.  This time is more than a month earlier.

  Today, I T-budded some apricot onto the multi-graft plum.  It's a long shot as to whether they ever bear, because apricot blooms too early and is frost killed.  But if those couple of branches do that, it's OK.  I also T-budded Methley onto the plum multigraft.  The Methley is from my 4-year tree, which has not yet borne fruit.  I thought about also adding Toka, but did not find good understock branches. I can wait and do them as whip and tongue grafts next Spring, if I still want to add them.

As for Cherries, I T-budded 3 each of Stella and Ranier onto Almaden Duke.  Also 4 of Lapins, onto the same Almaden Duke.  This time, I double-wrapped as I did this Spring's whip-tongue grafts, first with polyethylene tape, then with Parafilm.  Then, to hold the cambium at the back of the bud, firmly against the stock, I overwrapped tightly, with a non-stretching nylon twine.

 Now it's wait and see.  From what I've read, the string will need to be cut at 3 weeks.

Ranier Cherry T-bud onto Almaden Duke Cherry.  6.5.15

These will need to be observed for the right time to unwrap, without letting the twine girdle the grafts.  It's worth a try.

I copied the bud-wood illustration from last year's attempts.  

Budwood Illustration from 7.15.14

Plum Grafting. Progress Report. 5.3.15

Ember Plum.  Whip Tongue Graft at 43 days.  5.3.15

Ember grafted onto Hollywood at 41 days.   Growing rapidly.  The rootstock was bent, so this tree will need staking to grow more vertically.  Not a problem.

I have not removed the wrapping yet.  Probably could.  I the growth is this advanced, I'm convinced the graft has fully merged and healed.  Leaving the wrapping in place for strength.   Remove at about 6 inches of growth.  We are close to that.

All I read about the need to bud graft plums was wrong.   I did 6 whip / tongue, using 3 varieties, and all took.  This is good.  Many of the bud grafts need more than 1/2 year to start growing.  The whip / tongue grafts are growing fast, a few weeks after grafting.

Grafting Progress Report. 4.25.15

Ember whip/tongue @ 6 weeks.   4.25.15

Columnar apple multigraft.  8 weeks.  4.25.15

Sketch for columnar apple multigraft.

Redfield apple whip/tongue.  6 weeks.  4.25.15

 This is my little tree nursery as of today.  It's been chilly and raining, so growth is slower.  I expect it to take of with warmer sunny days next week.

Ember on Hollywood - nice growth.

2nd multigraft on columnar apple - nice growth.  The sketch shows the general idea.  These are columnar, so I am grafting one on top of the other.  Reason is for novelty and pollination.  In-ground is on old rootstock sucker that persisted from a Yellow Delicious semidwarf that I cut down 2 years ago for never bearing.  In-container is from the same, moved into container last winter, very few roots.  Doing OK and I assume rooting well, in container.

Redfield from Fedco at 6 weeks.  The rootstock seemed to be doing poorly, with result that the graft was doing poorly, but now looking better.

Deck wall tree nursery.  Some are cuttings or seedlings in 3rd or 4th year, I forget.  I moved them back into containers for TLC.  I get better young tree growth in containers with extra warmth, nutrients, and attention on the deck.

Deck Tree nursery.  4.25.15

Columnar apple multigraft, container.  4.25.15

This is a terminal whip/tongue yellow columnar apple graft,  onto potted columnar red apple graft.  The bare-rooted specimen is how it looked Nov 2014 when I removed it from the tree roots that had produced the sucker that I grafted it on to.  Apples can regenerate roots from minimal source, quite well.  I hoped that as long as there were root primordia, this would grow.  I don't think the top would be doing so well if it has not generated adequate roots by now, much more than it had in November.  This one is also meant to be like the sketch. 

Bare rooted columnar apple graft Nov 2014

T-bud Grafting Update. 3.18.15

Apricot T-bud 1st leaf.  3.28.15

Hollywood T-bud 1st leaf.  3.28.15

Rainier Cherry T-bud 1st Leaf.  3.28.15

 These are some of the T-bud grafts that I did last summer.  All of the plums took.  Of the cherries, only 1 took.  I think that was Ranier, that is on Almaden Duke.  None of the tart cherries took.

It's an interesting process.  These are grafted in summer, June, July, August.  With a couple of exceptions, the buds remain dormant until the following Spring, which is now. 

I pruned off the stem distal / above the grafts, about an inch above.  Now they have no competition and should grow vigorously.

I did not label some of the well.  All of the red leaf are Hollywood, and most of the green leaf are Shiro. 

Since these have been on the trees for about 9 months, if they are growing, that must mean they are solidly grafted now.

I hope to do more T-budding this coming summer.  Maybe, for the ones that did not take, I did not do them tight enough, or took off the wrapping too soon.  I'm very excited that many did take, and it gives me a sense of wonder.

Shiro T-bud 1st Leaf.  3.28.15