Update. Tree and shrub propagation and grafting. 5.24.14

Asian pear graft.  Recovery from deer chewing.

Hamese Asian Pear Graft.

Euro Pear graft on Asian Pear

 Plant propagation and grafting efforts.  Many of them did well.  A few did not grow.

All of the pear grafts took.  One was chewed by deer but is recovering.  Some bloomed.  That resulted in a delay of growth, but ultimately they all grew.  That includes the 3 varieties of Asian pear, on an Asian pear tree. and 2 varieties of European pear on a different Asian pear tree.

Learnings -

1.  Don't leave a long tail on the whip.  The graft still takes, but the tail doesn't always callous onto the stock, leaving an appendage.

2.  Best to take scion wood that doesn't look like it will bloom.

Close-up Healing Whip and Tongue, Pear

Liberty Apple Graft on Honeycrisp

 All of the apple grafts also took.  The learnings were the same as for pear.

I should probably remove the liberty apple from the newly grafted scion from this spring, but it looks ok and I think I will leave it to see what happens.  The scion is growing rapidly despite also making an apple.

I unwrapped most of the rest today.  They have finished formation of callous, so no benefit to leaving them longer.  The wrapping did not strangle the new growth.  So this was a good time.

Of the grafted lilacs, it looks like only one of the approximately 6 grafts took.  I don't know why.  It might be timing, or lilacs might be more difficult to graft.  Or there may have been compatibility issues.

Still I am excited that one did take and is growing vigorously.

All three of the lilac offsets that I separated from mature bushes, grew.  One was eaten by deer or rabbits, but is recovering.

Laburnums, grown from cuttings late Winter 2013, are growing.  They were eaten by deer or rabbits, but are recovering.  I had to move them again, because of an easement issue.

Ning started pussy willows from cuttings.  He started a hedge.  These were just pencil thick, or thicker, and about 18 inches to 2 feet long, taken from a big pussy willow at the Vancouver place.  He simply pushed the cuttings into the moist ground, about half way, in Feb.  All are growing.  Willows are very easy.

I updated on plum cuttings already.  All approx 8 Hollywood plum cuttings struck.  None of the approx 8 Shiro plum cuttings struck.  About 1/2 of the approx 8 flowering quince cuttings struck, but they are not growing vigorously.  The forsythia cuttings are touch and go.  2 still seem alive.

Lilac Growth on Separated Offset

Shinseiki Asian Pear Graft

Laburnum from Cutting.  Year 2.

Pussy Willow from Cutting.  Year 1.

Jonagold dwarf apple graft.

A little more on the grafts. And the apple trees are taking hold. 5.10.14

Triple  Variety Apple graft.  5.10.14

New Liberty graft on Honeycrisp. 5.10.14

Liberty Graft on Honeycrisp.  5.10.14

 Puttering around the apple trees in my little orchard.  The trees are all caged now.  Deer have been marauding and destroying everything that meets their fancy.  Fortunately I planned for them with the apples.

The tree cages are a hassle and cost money, but have some advantages.  The triple-variety graft is in a tree cage and I use the cage as a training tool to spread out the branches.  They'll need to be tied that way for a year.

The grafts are growing like gangbusters.  The Liberty graft on the little Honeycrisp tree has nice growth despite having had a bloom.  I removed the grafting wrap to avoid girdling the limb.  When the branch takes off and grows, it should be about equal to the Honeycrisp branch, and one can pollinate the other.

I looked and looked and looked to find patent info on Liberty.  I could not find any, so I think this was a legal graft.  Honeycrisp patent has run out.

The Jonared has good growth.  I need to get more fencing so the little branches don't reach past the circle and get eaten by deer.  The posts are in place.

Close up of whip-and-tongue of Jonagold tree start, made using sucker from rootstock and Jonagold from the scion.

Jonared.  5.10.14

Grafting democratizes gardening.  All you need is the rootstock, which can be a sucker from an existing tree; and the scion, which can be from a neighbor or relative.  The stock can also be a young tree that the gardener wants to add other varieties too.  It isn't hard.  I feel so accomplished, grafting these trees, even though millions of trees are made in nurseries, rapidly, by the same method.

Grafting also allows the gardener to build their own multiple variety tree, using proven local varieties, treasured varieties from the old homestead, and making for a self pollinating, and therefore more productive, tree.  It means you don't need 4 trees to get 4 varieties.

Whip and Tongue Apple Tree Start.  5.10.14

Apple Grafting. Progress Report. 5/6/14

Apple graft, about 2 months.

 Here is another of the apple grafts.  This one is on a dwarf rootstock, that originated as a sucker off another tree.  It was crooked.  I don't think that will hurt anything in the long run.  A little zig zag just above ground level.

Looking at some of the grafting videos, there is risk of girdling if the wrapping isn't removed on time.  It's hard to identify when that is.  For a novice.  This was growing well above the graft, so I removed the wrapping.

The graft wound is well calloused.  It did not come loose.  It looks OK.

I also removed all new growth occurring on the rootstock, below the graft.

The last photo was via cellphone.  If I get a chance and remember, I'll replace it with a camera pic that is better focused.

Unwrapping the graft.  5.6.14

Apple graft.  Healed whip and tongue.  5.6.14 

Grafting Followup. 4.25.14

Apple Graft at 2 months.

 Following up on grafts from late Ferbruary.

Deer browsed one of the Asian pear trees, including a nicely growing graft.  *#&$^%$ Deer.

The apple graft is Jonagold.  The rootstock is a sucker that sprouted from roots of an apple  tree that I cut down.  That tree never bore and was susceptible to fireblight, and too vigorous.  I thought it was dead, but now a few years later there are sprouts from the rootstock.  So I grafted a couple.  I removed the wrap today.  It's not clear when to remove.  Too late and the wrap girdles the tree.  Too early and it might not be healed.

This was growing nicely so I thought it might be healed.  Lucky guess, it is.  Nicely healed whip and tongue graft.  Happy.

This is much better than a cleft graft, which leaves exposed open wounds.

Lilac Graft at 2 months.

Not all of the lilacs took.  This one did.  They are in a hard to reach spot.  This is the best photo I could make.  At least this one is growing.  A couple others are in the "maybe" category.

Puttering. 4.20.14

Redmond Linden Sapling.  2nd Spring.  

Amanagawa Cherry.  2nd. Spring.

Here is the rest of the weekend.

The Redmond Linden I planted late fall / early winter 2012 has lush rapid growth.  So far deer have not munched on it.  So far.  I can't tell yet if it will have flowers this year.

The Redmond is at least a week, maybe 2, ahead of the Greenspire lindens.

Amanagawa cherry, which wound up in the chicken yard, is blooming nicely.  This is its 2nd year in ground here.  The chickens like to dig under it.  The roots must be deep enough that it's not a problem.

Prairie Fire Crabapple.  Blooming nicely.  I think it will be in peak bloom on wed when the honeybees arrive.  Meanwhile I used paintbrush to transfer pollen from Prairie Fire to the fruiting apples.  This is the 1st Spring, I planted it last fall.

Canary Weigela.  I planted this last summer.  Deer or rabbits munched on it.  It made a nice comeback.

The lilac grafts are difficult to photograph under the larger bush.  Some seem to have taken and are pushing growth.  Not as fast as the parent bush.  Which I guess is expected.  As long as they grow, it's a success.  This one I accidentally stepped on while doing chores and managed to bury it.  Then discovered it later.  It looks broken, but OK.

Peppers are ahead of expectation.  The poly tunnel is the way to go.   I uncovered them today so they get some air.  The Red Portugal has peppers.  Those seeds were planted late December and raised under lights.  The others were started later.  I watered them today and re-covered.  Soon they can stay outside.

The tunnel is not so good for garlic chives.  The tips of the leaves are burned.

Prairie Fire Crabapple.  1st Spring.

Canary Weigela.  1st Spring.  2.20.14

Lilac Graft at 5 weeks.

Pepper Red Portugal in Poly Tunnel.

Peppers in Poly Tunnel.

Asian Pear Grafts. 4.16.14

Cleft Graft Asian Pear, 1 year later

 The cleft grafted asian pears from last year are growing nicely.  The callous tissue is irregular in these grafts,  but that doesn't seem to affect the growth.  The new growth is vigorous and healthy appearing.  It's a vigorous as the growth of the stock variety.

Unfortunately I didn't tag with variety name.  Once they fruit I can figure it out.

All of the new Asian pear grafts have new growth.  Some as swelling green buds.  Some with new leaves and stems.

I've been reading up on when to remove the tape.  Leave on too long and stem is girdled.  Take off too soon and they might come apart.  Looks like I should remove in May, with about 2 months of growth.

Note for next year:  take only scion with no flower buds.  Blooming seems to set back the vegetative growth, significantly.

Cleft Graft Asian Pear, 1 year later

Whip/Tongue Mishirasu,  6 weeks later.

Grafts. 4.9.14

Asian Pear Graft.  Starting to grow.

The Asian Pear grafts are starting to grow.

If I was smarter, I would not have used potentially blooming scion.  The flower buds sap more energy via the developing joined vascular system, and the leaf buds lag behind.  The scions that do not have flower buds are leafing out.

Progress Report. Rain. No Puttering. Grafting Illustrations. 3.26.14

It's been very rainy.  Constant rain for a week.  I'm concerned the plums and peaches may not pollinate.

When I use a small paintbrush on anthers there is no visible pollen.  Washed off.  Just water.

Today about 50F.  Inside poly tunnel raised bed, 55F.  Not enough sun to warm it up.  Portugal Red Pepper I moved a week ago looks OK, maybe some new growth.  Chinese chives a foot tall.

At about 3 weeks, only one Four O'clock from the first, room temp non-soaked batch has germinated.  At about 1 week, one Four O'clock from the second, soaked, seed-warmer batch germinated.  So now, so far, I have 2 plants.  Better than none.  It looks like another is beginning to push up seed growing medium.   Will keep them on the seed warmer a few weeks.   No conclusions.  Not a randomized, controlled, statistically analyzed trial.  I think the soaking and warming is probably beneficial.

On Grafting, so far the grafts look OK.  Slowly swelling buds on all.  None have shriveled.  With the cool wet weather, they might look OK if they have not taken.  Found some illustrations from Gutenberg.org which are available to everyone to download.

Whip and Tongue Graft Illustration.  Dr. John A Warder.  1867.  American Pomology.  Apples. 

Side Graft Illustration.  Dr. John A Warder.  1867. American Pomology.  Apples. 

Whip and Tongue Graft Illustration.  H. Harold Hume.  1906.  The Pecan and Its Culture.  

Cleft Graft Illustration.  H. Harold Hume.  1906.  The Pecan and Its Culture. 

Fruit Tree Grafting. Progress Report. 3.9.14

Asian pear graft.  Hamese.  Whip and Tongue.

Asian pear graft.  Mishirasu.  Whip and Tongue.

 Some of the new grafts have swelling buds.  Probably flower buds.

I don't think it's beneficial to let them fruit the first year.  Wood may not be strong enough for the weight of the fruit.  Bearing would decrease stem growth.  I think it's OK to allow blooming, which might also help pollinate the established branches and 1-year-old grafts.

It looks like a couple of the 1-year-old grafts might also bloom.  I might let those bear fruit so I see what they are.  Forgot to label them last year.

The Hosui stock had buds in various states of development.  I want the grafted varieties to pollinize the Hosui, and vice versa, for better yield.  Or for yield at all.

Hosui bud.  This is the stock.  The framework I am adding more varieties to.

1 year old Asian pear cleft graft.

Creating a Bouquet Lilac Bush. 3.2.14

Three of the freshly grafted lilacs.

First steps of Bouguet Lilac.   First graft onto original sucker.

Bouguet Lilac.  Fall of 1st year & Spring of year 2.

 Here is my thought about how to develop a Bouquet lilac.

Step 1.  Spring of year 1.  Graft first new variety onto suckers of a parent lilac bush.  Leave in place at least first Spring and Summer, so the new plant can draw nutrients from the parent bush.

Step 2.  Fall of year 1.  The connecting stolon can be severed and the new little bush planted in a garden bed.

Step 3.  Spring of year 2.  Lilacs have buds in pairs.  Assuming the first 2 pairs of buds made adequate stems, graft new varieties on to each of the new stems.  Graft them above the first 2 pairs of buds, which will be allowed to grow.

If a bud or 2 grew from the rootstock, which itself is a nice lilac, then allow that to grow as well.  At this point, if all grafts take and all varieties grow, there would be 4 varieties.

Step 4.  Spring of year 3.  Additional varieties can be grafted.  I depicted grafts onto the new grafts from Step 3.  It depends on whether the grafts take, and which is the most vigorous. 

I think, if the new shrub produces suckers, those would need to be removed.  If not, the original rootstock variety may take over with more vigor, and overtake the grafted varieties.

I don't know if this will work.  It will be an interesting project to work on.  It takes a certain amount of confidence in the future, to plan a 3-year grafting project.  Then again, so does growing almost any tree or shrub.

This also assumes that my grafts take.  I've read that lilacs can be grafted.  I don't know if my technique will be good enough.

Bouquet Lilac.  Spring of year #3

The big lilac bush is an "OK" variety.  Not very fragrant, and not as lavish as some.  It must be pretty rugged, to have survived here and grown as large as it is.

Grafting Apple and Lilacs. 3.1.14

Grafting supplies, rootstock, and scion wood.

 Today I did some more grafting.

First, I identified a sucker growing from below the graft of a dwarf apple tree.  The tree is a nonpatented Jonagold.  The rootstock is nonlabeled.

I carefully removed soil between the sucker and the original tree.  Then I used pruning shears to cut through the sucker base between the stem and the tree, close to the tree.

This rootstock was the result.  The original stem was about 3 feet.  I pruned it back to about 1 foot before cutting for the whip and tongue graft.

This method is much easier for me now.  It just took practice, a very sharp knife, and learning how to brace myself and cut carefully and mindfully to avoid slips and lacerations.

Whip and Tongue Graft.

 This side looks good.  The other side was not as good.  I've done a number of grafts where only one side matched up, and they worked fine.

I make sure to place the prepared scion in water until I've cut the rootstock.  I also get that wet.  My thought is it will slide together better with water as lubricant, and there won't be dry surfaces that might impede joining together.

There was a 2nd stem, a little branch.  I cut that off.   That wound is also covered to avoid dehydration, until healing begins.

Wrapped with polyethylene tape.  The wrap goes from bottom to top with generous overlap each wrap around.  That way rain water drains outside instead of trailing into the wrapping.

I did not cut the top off this time.  I don't know if lower buds are viable.  That might result in the graft not taking. 

Graft wrapped in polyethylene tape.

 The 2nd to last photo shows the well-rooted rootstock.  The cut is large.  I don't think that will matter.  It should heal over.

I potted the new little tree in potting soil, in a one gallon pot.  I plan to return it home, and keep on the deck with TLC care for the first year.

I also grafted lilacs.  At the battleground place is a large, very old lilac bush with many suckers.  I expect the suckers have viable roots.  Instead of removing them from the mother bush, I grafted with them in place.  If they take, I can dig them out in the fall.

Scion wood was obtained from 2 non-suckering varieties at the Vancouver house.  They are un-named varieties.  If the grafts take, there are some choices about what I do with the result.  I could keep them as single-stem tree-like shrubs.   I could plant deeply, so that the scion will form its own roots, then later cut off the original rootstock.

Rootstock with roots.

Completed graft.

I could consider these a multi-year project.  The first year, allow 2 stems to grow from scion.  The 2nd year, graft again, leaving one or two nodes to grow out below the 2nd level of scion.  At that point, it could be a 3-variety shrub.  Repeating a 3rd year, could make for a multi-variety shrub with 6 or more varieties.  Sort of a bouquet tree.  That will be interesting.  The first step is see if the first grafts take.

The lilacs clearly have viable buds low on the scion, so I did cut them back to one node, containing 2 buds.  Then sealed the cut tips with tree-kote.

Fruit Tree Grafting. 2.25.14

I've been watching the Calendar for grafting time.  I think this is grafting season now for apples and pears.  About the same time as I did last year, which was successful.

Today I added a pollinator variety to the little Honeycrisp, another to the one year old Sutton's Beauty, and one to the one year old Esopus Spitzenberg.  The pollinator varieties are old varieties.

I also added 3 varieties of Asian pear to the 2 year old Hosui, and 2 unknown varieties of European pear to the unknown variety of Asian pear.  This is for pollination.  Also I want to keep those varieties, if we move to the Battleground place.  I prefer more varieties, on the trees already there, than adding more trees.  We don't need a tree-full of each cultivar.  Just a branch for a couple bowls of fruit when each ripens.

Graafting Supplies and Scion Wood

Last year I did cleft grafting on existing trees.  I thought I was too uncoordinated to safely do whip & tongue grafting.  This time I did do whip & tongue grafting.  The saddle grafts all took, and some grew surprisingly fast.  But a cleft graft exposes open wound on each side, which dies and needs to be overgrown by new wood.   The whip & tongue graft does not leave exposed edges, so is potentially healthier.  In theory, all exposed scion cambium is matched with rootstock or branchstock cambium.  That's if the cuts are skillfully done.

I found that sharpening the knife between each graft, the wood cut very steadily.  I steadied my hand against my chest and mad the cuts very slowly, slicing along the blade. The biggest  concern with this method is it is hazardous to the fingers of the grafter.  I did get a small thumb laceration.  It only needed a bandaid.

Whip and Tongue Graft on Asian Pear

I used polyethylene wrap and treekote.  Looks nice and they seem like strongly splinted grafts.

Photo is blurred but still better than my sketch.  I found I had overlap of cut edge over bark.  So I carefully exposed cambium by shaving that section of bark.  Then it matched.

They are a little bent.  They came together with the wrapping.  I dipped in water so cut surfaces would not be dry.

Labels state variety name, expected ripening time, and on the back, graft date.

Wrapped snugly with polyethylene, and labeled.

Some references state polyethlene wrapping does not need external sealer.  Other references state sealer is needed.  A key to success is prevention of dessication, so I sealed.  Treekote is easy to apply.  Messy and not easy to get off the fingers.

Altogether today I did 3 grafts on Hosui pear, 3 grafts on unknown Asian pear, and one each on 3 small apple trees.  Then I wanted to do more but I had homework and a doctor's appointment so I quit.

Lessons learned today.
1.  Grafting is not as hard as I thought.  It takes practice.

Sealed with Treekote

2.  A very sharp knife is essential.  I used a grafting knife, and a hunting knife sharpener from Fred Meyer.
3.  Apply bandaid to thumb before starting.
4.  Work slowly, carefully.  Don't try to slice quickly.
5.  The whip and tongue stays together nicely and does not leave exposed surfaces.
6. Prepare labels ahead of time, with variety name, date of graft, and expected ripening time.  Label each graft as it is completed.
7.  Polyethylene tape is easier than wide rubber bands.  It can be cut from freezer bags, although I got mine via Amazon.
8.  The Treekote is easy to apply too.  That was also via Amazon.

Maybe this weekend I'll graft some plums and cherries.  They are considered more difficult.  The grafting season is short, so I might as well do it now instead of waiting to see how the others do.