Apple Grafts

Started by gitano, May 16, 2020, 09:03:43 AM

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gitano

Apple trees grow pretty well here in South Central Alaska; if you can keep the moose away from them! About 15 years ago, I planted three apple trees in my yard. The moose killed the one variety that I favored; they 'hammered' the one that's "good to eat"; and the one apple variety I actually DON'T LIKE - Granny Smith - of course is doing the best. :stare: I like apples, I like making 'stuff' from apples, and I especially like growing things. So, I decided to grow some more apple trees.

The ends to which one has to go to protect trees from moose are "too much" for me. I've tried all the "local lore" methods. All to NO avail. I even bought some "mines". These devices hold a 12 gauge blank. A wire attached to the 'sear' is strung between poles. The idea is that when a moose hits the wire, the shotgun shell goes off, scaring the moose away. I had 5 of them strung in a circle around my two remaining apple trees and watched a bull moose walk between the trees, setting off EVERY ONE of the 'mines', and he DIDN'T EVEN FLINCH! So much for that idea. My neighbors spent a bunch of money and put a moose-proof fence around their place. I'm not going to do that.

So these new apple trees will be put in large containers, and kept out of moose's reach. I MAY plant one or two of them in the yard close to the house and WORK on keeping the moose off of them. We'll see.

But this post isn't about moose, it's about my new apple trees. I decided to try my had at grafting, and bought four cold-hardy root stocks onto which I have grafted four scions from my neighbor's apple orchard. The four varieties are: Lodi, Hyer 20, Honeycrisp, and Gravenstein. The root stocks (if anyone cares), are "Bud 9" from OneGreenWorld.com. According to OneGreenWorld,
Quote"Bud 9 Apple Rootstock is a dwarfing rootstock that dwarfs trees to 30-40% the size of a standard tree. Trees on Bud 9 are very precocious and productive."
"Dwarfing, precocious, and productive" are the very characteristics I'm looking for. Dwarfing for use in containers; precocious because I ain't long for this world in terms of tree lifetimes; and productive, well that seems obvious.

Here are current pictures of the root stocks with their grafted scions:









If you look closely, you can see the grafting tape in each image, above which is the scion. As you can see, none of the scions' buds are leafed out, while all of the root stocks are. I certainly wish the scions were showing signs of life, but I am not ready to call the grafts 'dead'. Yet.

Even if none of the grafts 'take', I'll cut those off, and start again with new scions. I'll post progress here.[/SIZE][/FONT]

Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

sakorick

Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.

Paul Hoskins

Paul. the splices look good. It may take a while for any "add on's" to show signs of taking. I haven't done any grafting in years but when I was fiddling with it, I fitted the graft & root stock very closely then smeared the joint with melted bee's wax, wrapped the joint with dry  grass blades and wrapped that section with relatively loose fitting cloth strips to keep "bugs" from trying to get to the wax. Worked pretty good for me. Just don't give up on it. ......Moose is one of my favorite meats after sheep. ......Paul H

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