Hey everyone. I grafted a few apples back on march 15th this year. It’s my second time doing this. It’s almost may 15th now and everything except the wickson crabapples haven’t opened up their buds yet. Some have swelled buds and others look like they’re sleeping. Is that normal? The apple trees are fully leafed out now.

I'm in the same situation. I grafted 4 scions, but I did it the hard way, especially for a first timer. I did an interstem graft. I put a semi-dwarf rootstock onto a semi-full rootstock. What I really mean is I cut off a stem of the semi-dwarf, grafted that to the semi-full rootstock and then grafted my scions to that. So I did twice the grafting and have twice the grafts to get healed.

I did a MacIntosh, a Redfield, and a Black Oxford. I also grafted a semi-dwarf to the semi-full without a scion so that I can do a T-Bud graft in August.

I saw a bud leafing out on the Redfield yesterday. The others have promising looking buds. I got leafing out on the rootstocks or the interstems also. I know you're supposed to rub off growth on the rootstocks, but I'm worrying over not getting growth on the scions and maybe reusing the rootstocks again next year if it comes to that. So in my planting zone, it still looks promising to me.

I set out an extra M111 and a couple M7 rootstocks that were left after cutting off the stems. A couple of them show growth, one I think was too short. I never cared for how small a dwarf fruit tree is in my area. But I've become really interested in growing a few dwarfs on the M111 semi-full rootstocks. The idea of doing all the work and expense of growing a tree to get 10 apples or 3 Bartlett pears a year, that I've seen, doesn't appeal to me. But an 8 foot high, 8 foot diameter dwarf fruit tree with maybe 3 dozen apples might interest me. I'm thinking maybe a dwarf on that M111 rootstock will promote better growth for me.

I read somewhere yesterday that instead of waiting till August to do T-Bud grafting that you can do it in May/June and that if you do it early you'll get a lot of new growth as opposed to minimal growth this year if you do the T-Bud graft in August. So I tried it today. Actually I didn't do the graft, but I did make the T shaped cut into a stem of an apple water spout I was cleaning up. The bark pealed away very easily which as the story goes is the reason to wait till August.

One of my plans was to graft a couple Golden Delicious buds to a Yellow Transparent tree that I have. Both apples look similar so I thought it was an obvious idea. And I was scheming up the idea that I'll confuse the birds away from the late July blooming Yellow Transparent apples because some aren't ripe. I was also thinking that maybe I'd get Golden Delicious apples sooner on the established tree than on the 3 year old tree I have. But yesterday I notice some blooms on the new tree. Yayy This Golden Delicious tree is a real survivor. A pine tree about a foot in diameter broke of the top of a pine tree nearby. The tip of the pine hit first and it sprung another length over to this poor baby tree. The 5 foot fence around it was smashed. The tree was bent all out of shape, but it survived being pile driven into the earth. Now it's blooming. I wonder if the pile driving encourage a tap root.?

May 10, 2018

I found another leaf budding out on my Black Oxford yesterday. I did an inventory, of the 7 grafts I did 6 have budded out. That's 84%, I'm beginning to feel a success at this grafting business.

This is an odd year. I'm thinking about the date and first leaf bud. Spring was very late getting here. I planted Black Seeded Simpson lettuce in late March. It's about an inch high now. Most of that growth came in the last week. In a normal year, I'd be picking 6 or so inch long leafs off that lettuce by now. Maple trees are barely formed, they're so small. Pin Oaks are just starting to bud out. Apple trees are still blooming. Lilacs are in full bloom. It's a very late spring.

My question is similar, just on the negative end.  Once you've grafted, how long is it before they should start shooting obvious buds out of the scion.  I grafted over a month ago and while 2 of the 5 are already leafing out from the scion the others, though a bit swollen, show no further sign of life.  How long does one wait....is it too late to graft to a rootstock once it begins leafing out?  All the scions came from the same heirloom apple I'm trying to save. Thanks, Bill  

So to follow up on my question the lagging scions mostly leafed out. The newtown pippen ones that i really wanted didn't make it for some reason. Everything else took. I'm a bit surprised at how vigorous the wickson crabapple grafts are. They took off almost immediately and show no signs of slowing down.

May 25

My last graft that hadn't leafed out started to leaf out today. All the buds on that scion (MacIntosh) look kinda black. One has been white. Yesterday I thought I saw a hint of green. So now that this one has leafed out, well just barely, I'm at 100% in my first attempt. I did M7 rootstocks and grafted those to M111. I also grafted an M7 to a M111 and intend to T-Bud a Red Rome from a dwarf seedling I bought this year.

Today I also grafted a MacIntosh Bud to the M7 with the scion that just leaf budded out today. I think I should have held off on that. I couldn't get the bark to pull away from the stem. If this one takes I'll be surprised. Today I also cut a branch off my Golden Delicious which bloomed this year for the first time. I made two T-Bud grafts to a Yellow Transparent. These two apples look kinda similar and I'm looking forward to find out how long it takes to fruit when grafting to an established ( 40 year old? ) tree. Those grafts went much better. The bark lifted and pulled away instead of tending to break.

It looks to me like you have to be patient when doing grafts. Don't give up on what you've done. And if your thinking of trying fruit tree grafting, give it a try. The only thing I used that I didn't have was some grafting tape that I bought on eBay for a few bucks, I think the shipping was free. I used a safety knife and I used teflon plumbers tape to seal the tips of the scions. I used the teflon tape where they suggest using parafin. I finally found it my local grocery store for $6, they know it as "Gulf Wax". Then I found out they want you to use a double boiler to melt the wax. I had been thinking of using a metal jar lid on top of a candle with copper wire for a spacer between. At any rate the teflon tape is much simpler unless your doing enough grafts to make it economical to do the wax method.

Question:  Now we are in July and one of the branches from my rootstock is overtaking the scion in growth rate.  OK to prune off the rootstock branch now?  I left it grow in case the graft failed, but it looks like it will be OK.

Bill Weible wrote:Question:  Now we are in July and one of the branches from my rootstock is overtaking the scion in growth rate.  OK to prune off the rootstock branch now?  I left it grow in case the graft failed, but it looks like it will be OK.

Yes, those can be pruned off now and the graft will do better for it.  I find when they are soft you can just "fold" them down by hand and they pop off.  Of course pruners are better if you have them with you..