posted 7 years ago
I grafted the M7's to the M111's about a month ago. I did a MacIntosh, a Black Oxford and a Redfield. I got the Black Oxford for a keeper apple. Fedco says they store till July of the following year. The Redfield is a red fleshed apple. It's a cross of Wolf River x Niedzwetzkyana. Niedzwetzkyana is a crab apple from Kyrgyzstan. With the Redfield everything is red, the flesh, the leaves, the blossoms and they don't mention this but when I grafted the scion the wood of the scion has red streaks in it. I also grafted an M7 to an M111 to plant with the Red Rome Dwarf which I did order from Stark.
When I did the grafts I cut myself twice. I had drilled a hole in a 10 inch length of 2x4 which I found was too cumbersome. The next time I try to graft I came up with the idea of cutting the bottom off a milk jug and putting a hole in it. This will allow me to maneuver the stems and have the guard protect my fingers without making the whole operation impossible. I used a safety knife with a new blade in it. I found that you need a longer blade than it has. I had a roll of grafting tape for the grafts and I used teflon plumbers tape for the tips.
I planted the grafts out two days ago, April 23. I dug holes in my clay,, about 42 inches in diameter and fenced them in with 5 foot high fencing on one post. I used the 42 inch size as I thought I'd get 4 plantings out of a 50 foot roll of fencing. I didn't quite make it. I put the Red Rome and the M7 on M111 in the same hole, about a foot apart. In August I'll graft a Bud from the dwarf to the Semi-Dwarf interstem combo that I grafted earlier. I expect the semi-dwarf will eventually overgrow the dwarf, but if it makes it I won't really care about the overwhelmed dwarf Rome even tho I paid good money for it.
I sold my excess M111 rootstocks on eBay. I got free boxes from the post office, 4x4" x 26" long. The shipping cost I think was $7 or so for each shipment. I also sold the roots from the M7's which were still long enough to graft to. Those I shipped in an envelope first class for a few bucks. So I think my buyers were thrilled with the cost of shipping compared to the sellers I bought from. I was worried that I'd get a buyer from a state like California buy one and that I'd get in trouble. eBay let's me block Alaska and Hawaii. But no other states. I did block all international shipping, cause I'd expect the package would get seized at customs. The proceeds from those sales paid for my Red Rome from Stark.
Next year I'm going to graft cherries and Bartlett pears, if this years work isn't a failure.