Grafting fruit trees.

[Dana]

I am interested in grafting a few apple trees. Have any of you done this? How about sharing your experience with this, and photo's of the process. Also is budding different?

[Tom]

I've not grafted apples.  We don't have many in Florida. 

I have grafted citrus and persimmon and hibiscus, etc.

There are some good books on grafting and budding.  Probably some good information on the Net.  The best thing to do is learn the fundamentals and the Practice like crazy.

The first thing is cleanliness.  Sterilization of tools and keeping unclean hands away from the wounds is important.

Budding and grafting works because you place the cambium of the two plants together.  The Cambium is that layer of "growing" cells just beneath the bark.  It is what forms the scar when you prune a tree or ding the bark.

One way is to cut a "hardened branch", not the fresh green new growth.  Split the cut end.   Do the same of a second plant but cut it into a wedge.  Place the wedge in the split so that the cambiums touch.  You can even put two in there if you want, one on each side.   Then tie them in with string and seal the wound with grafting wax.  The wound can't be allowed to dry out.

You can also make the junction by joining a sloping cut.   Or, you can just wound one plant that is close to another  and wound the second plant and joint the wounds without separating the limbs from a plant until after the graft takes.

Budding is almost the same except you take a good viable bud off of a plant and expose the cambium on the shield it is attached too.  Then cut through another limbs bark, in a t-shape to expose the cambium and slip the shield into the wound on the second so that the cambiums touch. Then seal it all up leaving the bud exposed.  It will (may) grow there.

It's been a long time since I've grafted, but it's fun.  I should get back into it again. 

[Minnesota_boy]

I've done a few apple grafts and had moderate success using the sloping cut on a limb and attaching another limb with a matching solping cut plus a little wedge in each to hold them together while I wrapped the joint.  I used rubber electrical tape to seal the wound as it was water tight for a time and then the sunlight would degrade it and it would fall off. 

It was fun having one tree with 3 different blossoms on it.  Well it was until the hard winter.  When the temperature went to -57F. all my grafted wood died. 

I may try it again this spring as I have a tree that I was given that the rabbits girdled and I'd like to save its genetics if I can. 

[Dana]

I picked up some apple orchard prunings today with the intention of grafting or buding. I think they are several months old do you think they have dried out to the point of not being able to take? I would guess fresh cut is most desireable, but the cut branches are dormant. Could I use roof tar in place of grafting wax?

[Tom]

I would be afraid of he age.  Though, nothing ventured,  nothing gained.

It doesn't get that kind of cold down here, I don't know.

It is usually recommended that cuttings be fresh.

I think tar may be toxic, Don't know again.

Until you are successful, you will probably be better off using tried and true methods and equipment.

[Dana]

I am sure you are right, Tom. If tar was usable, I'm sure the big orchards would use it, instead  grafting wax. You only get one chance a year so why risk it.
Now, if I do the budding method, I do or do not want to select the fruit buds? I would think not, due to the extra energy required to produce a blossum and the fruit, Or, would you remove the blossum before it has set?

[KGNC]

My uncle does some grafting on apple trees, instead of buying grafting wax he stops by the hardware and buys a toliet wax ring. He says the wax works just fine and is a lot cheaper.  Anyway I hope is is using new ones! 

[Tom]

bud grafting link 1
bud grafting link 2

Or google Bud Grafting

Sometimes it's better to read some expert stuff first.  I may lead you astray.

[Dana]

Thanks everybody.

[SwampDonkey]

I've always wanted to graft apple buds onto wild apple trees, but never figured it out or went to an expert to learn how. 

[SPIKER]

this is something I know nothing about !?   so I guess I'll do more reading   good links above and if any others are found please post em .

mark M

[bberry]

Go to the Garden Web and look for the forum on Fruits and Orchids. Plenty of good info there. Some people there are doing some good things with different fruits. Once you get good at grafting you might want to trade scion wood with others across the country.

[SwampDonkey]

Wish I could have grafted some 'New Brunswicker' variety apples to some wild stock, but they never took. Now the old trees are gone. We bought some trees from a nursery a few years back that were suppose to be grafted 'New Brunswicker', but they sure weren't anything like our old ones. The new apple trees had fruit as hard as baseballs and lacked the red veinage in the flesh. They also do not foam up when cooked on the stove. I've got an old wild tree up on my woodlot that are alot better than those new trees. Very tempted to cut them and plant something more useful, like an oak or butternut tree. 

[junkyard]

Thirty five years ago Bill MacKentley of Saint Lawrence Nursery showed me how to graft. He used the slant cut then wrapped tightly with masking tape Then cut a heavy rubber  band to get a strip of rubber. He tucked the end of the rubber under the first turn on the graft then wrapped as tight as he could over the masking tape the last turn of the rubber has the end tucked under. this will degrade about the time the graft is knitted together and fall off.       www.sln.potsdam.ny    The trees he sells are grown in a zone three area some times -40 degrees in winter.
                         Junkyard

[Don P]

We went to an extension apple grafting get together a couplafew weeks ago (apples are in blossom here now)
The scion wood was taken in Jan/Feb and damp wrapped in a cooler. We recut a fresh end when we used it. One or 2 buds on the scion section was all we wanted, much more is too hard on the rootstock.
We used the whip graft like several others described, a long scarf cut exposing lots of cambium on each piece. We did our best to match diameter or scion and rootstock so that all the cambium would match.  Masking tape and wax toilet ring wax to hold things together and seal it. He did have a neat tool that punched out matching interlocking ball and socket, jigsaw puzzle type joints, bredeeso comes to mind but I think thats for nuts. We did one graft with that tool. It would be the way to go if you were doing lots. He's found them on Ebay.

[getoverit]

While I was living in North Carolina, I did an experiment with an apple tree and had seven different types of apple branches growing on one tree. The type of graft cuts I made looked something like this:



Once the graft was tied off with thin wire, I would then cover the graft with toilet bowl wax, then wrap it with wet newspaper held on with masking tape, and then the whole thing covered with plastic wrap. After a good while, the wrapping would come off due to weathering and the graft was strong enough to hold on it's own merits.

The trick was to get all of the grafts to produce fruit.... I never did get that to happen even though all of the different types of branches seemed healthy.

I'm with Tom on this one though... it is fun to graft things together, but by no means am I an expert... now if I could only get my mulberry rootings to live

[SwampDonkey]

I've been following all the suggestions and descriptions in the thread. I'de like to try it some spring, but I'm too busy getting my thinning marked out to have time to get anything alse started. My father is also interested in this stuff so I'll be printing off the thread sometime to take down to him.

[DoubleD]

First don't graft in windy day because the graft will dry and die
As showed by getoverit the apple and pear tree could be grafted in that manner but don't go well for cherry peach apricot and plum trees.
You could top a little tree, do a cut long like the diameter deep 1/4 of inch (an axe and an hammer are really helpful for this job) and place the graft at the end. The graft must be prepared with a knife like an arrowhead and the gem on the graft must be "closed".
I usually cover the cut with a thick layer of putty and a little bit of raphia.
Now pics: they are better than one thousand word

You could see in the last pics the gems are opening after 15 days circa 
Have I mentioned of don't grafting trees in windy day 

[Dana]

I thought I would follow through on this thread with a few pictures of an apple tree that I grafted. I did Royal Gala and Mitsui on this tree. Seeing how well it worked, I'm planning on doing a bunch of different varieties this spring on our old trees.

[SwampDonkey]

Wow Dana. Never seen it done on such old stock before, usually just on a small branch. Did you seal with bees wax? I would be afraid with those larger limbs to get rot in the stem.

[Dana]

S.D. it's a product called Doc Farwell's grafting seal. I was a bit concerned about the age of the tree as well. However, at the class I went to we grafted on chestnuts of that size and the instructor said that it is common to do this to walnuts in California.
The trees I will do this spring are also the same age and size.