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sam_ny

Grafting with scions that might be waking up already

sam_ny
9 years ago

Hi everyone,

I had plans this year to graft over a young apple tree (3 y.o.) to a variety better for the location (i.e. something that's CAR resistant). I'd be taking the scions from a nearby tree, either William's Pride or Liberty, both of which have been unaffected by CAR.

I sort of messed up the timing and didn't collect the scions in March as I had planned. Now the buds on all my trees are starting to wake up. Not yet "mouse ears," but definitely not 100% dormant. I thought I might still do the grafting (cleft, more than likely) this weekend, but we're expecting some 60+ weather before then.

My question is this: should I just cut the scion wood this weekend and walk it straight over to the tree I'm working and graft it on, or should I try to take the scion wood today and store it till then, so it doesn't wake up anymore between now and Saturday?

Any thoughts? I've seen other people do grafting with non-dormant scion wood, so I presume it's not a huge deal. Maybe I'm overthinking it. And maybe putting not-completely-dormant scion wood in storage makes it non-viable...

Thanks for any advice!

Sam

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