Propagation into trunks of mature trees

I have spent the last year reviewing various types of propagation and I believe I have stumbled upon how to save older trees by the propagation of the new limbs lower onto the trunks utilizing plugs.
Let me explain:
a hole is drilled into the tree 2 to 3 inches.  The sized drill bit used would be about the size of the plug ( the branch you will be placing into the hole ).
If one were to use a 3/8 drill bit and then ever so lightly counter sink it so that the cambium is not breached than a 3/8 branch would be placed into the hole with the bark removed and only the cambium exposed.
Then select your branch with three good nodes.  Clean off the bark and cut a flat end on one side and a slightly tapered end on the other.
Make sure to remove only enough bark as the hole is deep.  Then tap it in with the nodes pointing up.
Cover it with a good sealer of your choice.

I ran into only one video about this technique and it appeared that it did indeed work for the latin american guy who did it for citrus.
I came across this while trying to figure out how to save some very old homestead trees on our property.  Very interesting how one can repair cavities in 100 year old trees and a simple extrapolation of the technique for my needs.

I plan to do a series of photos of the technique in the next couple of weeks during our freeze and then again when our cloudy spring comes in another three months

Sua Sponte

The type of propagation I discussed previously has succeeded and I now have several thick grafts sprouting leaves after blooming
. I hope to post pictures in the next day or two.

That's wild! I look forward to hearing more and seeing pictures

Here is a native wild plum tree of western Washington. This variety produces extremely small fruit and huge stones.   These trees are very tenacious and thrive here in acidic soils with filters sunlight to full sunlight.  They do not need watering once established.

So I severely cut back this wild plum tree last fall.  This winter I drilled and placed tightly fitting scions from a large red plum (on one cut off limb)  and a large yellow Japanese plum (on another cut off limb).
I simply sealed them with a spray on coating for trees.
The idea is to lose more of these height of the tree this fall and do this again.
After a couple years I will see a short robust tree that will set heavy fruit on thick limbs in the next couple years.
My other project like this is very similar but is grafting hazel nut scions onto several year old or mature native alders.
They too are leafing out now and I will post pictures in the next couple days.

This is fascinating.  Have some apples.  And please, continue to post pictures.

That seems like a great idea.

I tried something similar on a persimmon tree. I wanted to change the variety. My donor tree isn’t big enough to spare hardly any scion wood for top grafting. I made a downward cut through the bark and slightly into the wood. I put several very small  scions/twigs into the cut. It’s about 6’ from the ground. The trunk is only about three inches at that height. I don’t know if it worked yet.

I also found that this type of propagation allows for a very hardy and thick scion to be plugged in.  Thus allowing a shorter and more heavy limbed tree that usually takes many years to develop.
This winter I will be placing scions from frost peaches and nectarines I purchased from cloud mountain cloud mountain 10 years ago.

I really like this idea. One of the big stumbling blocks I have had with topworking established trees here is wind. We get lots of it, and it peaks in the springtime when grafting is going on. The quickest way that I typically lose an otherwise good graft is when the scion gets dislodged in a storm. Especially after the callus has formed and there are some nice leaves emerging...grrr. I often kludge things by splinting or staking, but this all gets time-consuming and I've got other chores.

This technique is like the roundwood timber framing approach. Bung those scions into holes where the friction holds them while the cambium knits together. Brilliant.