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| I have a mini apple orchard in my backyard containing a total of 9 semi-dwarf pink lady trees that are about 7 years old and in good health. The trees are planted in a grid in two rows. I would very much like to graft some early and mid-season apple varieties on these trees. I have access to scions from about 18 different varieties...the question is what's the best way to divide them the grafts? I'm thinking about only grafting to the second row of trees so that the front row (which is visible from the house) look even (not unbalanced). That would mean that the second row could get up to four or five different varieties of apples growing on them...Does that make sense or is it better to graft two different varieties on each of the 9 trees? Or keep one or two trees 100% pink lady and graft on the other 7 trees? Also, should I graft the early varieties on the same tree and the mid-season varieties together as well or can they all be jumbled up? Thanks much! |
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| there is no technical reason to do it any certain way. Just that you need to give each a good spot on the chosen tree (max sun). The tree itself won't care who is growing at the end of the branches and pollen isn't going to be a worry. Although I don't know how you are getting pollinated now, but apparently you are. Have you grafted before? If not spend some time learning. Don't just watch a couple you tube videos, you don't know if those actually took or not. I want to see at least an inch of branch length involved in the cut. Also I prefer to graft when the buds are opening on the host tree. |
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- Posted by scottfsmith 6B-7A-MD (My Page) on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 13:16
| There are many good ways to do it. One thing to keep in mind is if you really like one variety it helps to have a way to expand the existing graft. One way to do that is to only put one new variety per tree; the ones you like you can let take over from the Pink Lady and the ones you don't you can remove. Scott |
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| The low-chill varieties will dominate over the others in your climate. Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Shell of Alabama do not play well with others, and should be grouped on one tree so they can beat each other up. All other "low-chill" varieties are a step down from these and are OK to pair with others. |
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