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benfisher

1st year grafts fruiting!

benfisher
10 years ago

I grafted over a hundred grafts onto a crab apple, and got very nice fruit in the first year. I used old fruiting wood scion and still had 95% success. can I let this new wood fully fruit the second year without damage? anyone else use fruiting wood? I also grafted to young rootstock, and got blossoms on those as well... I did not let them fruit due to there young age and poor root establishment.

Comments (10)

  • Konrad___far_north
    10 years ago

    Most first year flowers will abort fruit set, second year no.
    No damage on the scion if you let it fruit, it just gives energy into the fruit, not much into new growth of wood.
    Please show us first year fruit from the first year of grafting.

  • alan haigh
    10 years ago

    If what you say is true, it is remarkable. I've never attempted to graft any but one year wood which on some varieties may include flower buds. These grafts never give me much growth, even when I remove the flowers and I couldn't imagine one being able to handle the weight of the fruit if it was left to mature.

    A claim such as yours, which seems to defy general beliefs about grafting, including getting so much success from 2-year wood, would benefit from a little more info and preferably a photo of grafts when first made and when holding mature fruit a few months later. I'm skeptical and have no way to evaluate your credibility.

  • benfisher
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I wish I could. i ate them! I was surprised, but did not realize it was that abnormal. I am fairly new to the serious grafting. I have done it to convert Siberian crab apple to a decent apple once they outgrow the deer around here. I hope I was clear the crab was 15 years old, and the scion was Old fruit wood as well. maybe 3-5 year old from ultra mature trees. one thing I did was keep the crab re-gen trimmed off multiple times over the summer....especially once I saw fruit. the funny part was how I got the scion. I asked my 75 yr old dad to get me the scion, and he brought me a bunch of old crappy wood to my disgust! I way over grafted (100) thinking it was going to fail. to be honest I did not even know what " fruiting wood" until I read on these forum about another issue. I'll share the dumb move to. I grafted a dozen or so Siberian crabs that were prolly five years old( out of deer range ). I used all the scion from the same tree...on each of the rootstock....and know they will not pollinate. I hope to graft back a flowering crab limb to each as a pollinator this spring. they are spread over my deer land so each tree Miz well get a new pollinator limb. I'm excited at your disbelief, cuz I've read A lot of your writing. thanks. I will try to post winter pics of this tree to gain some respect!! minus 25 here overnight....good Saturday project. thanks for the post. zone 3

  • Konrad___far_north
    10 years ago

    Seeing is believing,..hopefully by the end of this year.

    So far, only one of my hundreds of scions grafted ever fruited, [apple].
    This is the one,.. Uttwiler Spaetlauber, I don't think the credit goes to my skill, more so it's the variety, this one is unique.

    {{gwi:60040}}

  • benfisher
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    very cool. that's the look . I also use black electrical tape, scotch 88 I think it's called. it a better quality tape. some bark does peel as you remove it that scares me a little, but so far so good. this particular tree is the first time I labeled my scion so I know what fruit is what, but I really do not know the species of crab. it looks like you used the cleft, I usually use the long splice if I can. I did some clefts so I could cut the tree back harder in this case. most of them grew, but clearly not as successful as the splice for me. this tree was a big bush completely out of control. i decided to top dress every limb I saved, but did not realize how many grafts that would be. as I continued the cutting got lower into bigger wood, to reduce the numbers needed to complete. I also spread the actual grafting over about 20 days from start to finish, trying to test the timing issue. it did not seem to matted. I do have a question I will pose on a new thread...if you'll take a look . it relates to my high grafting/pruining technique.

    I think I did have 2-3 spices of the eight I added give fruit. it sounds like more luck than brains. I hope to try and duplicate it this spring. finding a crab specimen like the one I started with will be the challenge.

  • franktank232
    10 years ago

    I chip budded a plum onto a peach and it flowered the first year and set fruit, but they fell off...

  • alan haigh
    10 years ago

    Now I do believe you. The price you pay is very little graft growth, but it is interesting to learn that old wood can actually work. Thanks for the info. You do it by the book you don't learn nothing.

  • Konrad___far_north
    10 years ago

    >>it looks like you used the cleftThis is bark graft. [link]

    So,.. which apple fruited for you?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Konrad's modified bark grafting

  • benfisher
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    thanks harvester. you are correct. the fruited grafts grew about 1/4 of the fruitless grafts. these fruitless grew ridiculous amounts of vegetative growth, many of them with three buds 24-30 inches per bud. I think that is when I started looking online and learned of summer pruining. the only pruining I had done was always dormant. I think this might help me greatly in the future. I will try and post the species of apple that fruited tomorow. as I think about it, the fruit came from the low, perimeter limbs, with the crazy growth on the top . the crab re-spouted like crazy, and I completely removed every leaf three times through out the summer. I'm sure I will fight this re-growth for years to come, but it is one yard tree.....I'll fight the fight. less nitrogen on the lawn might be wise!

  • benfisher
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I looked today at my labeling and found I had three types fruit. red Barron,red Dutch, and northwest greening. I thought I had one more , but somehow ended up with additional limbs of red Barron.

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