I'm brand new to fruit trees as I just got myself a plum and a damson trees.

I've been reading about grafiting and budding but most of the information I have found online and in books is contradictory and quite a lot of it does not answer my questions. There is plenty on technique but not much more. I was hoping that you might be able to help.

1- First off, what time of year can I chip bud? Some books say mid-summer to Autumn others all year around. Could anyone clarify this for me?

2 - Something that no one seems to address is the age of the trees when budding is performed. Is there a minimum age for a tree to be before chip budding? Mine are two years old at the moment.

3 - How many buds can/should one chip bud to a given tree at a given time? is 4 acceptable?

4 - What part of the tree should one graft to? Mine have a pixy and and VVA rootstocks and a old greengage and a merrywhether interstock (repectively). Should I bud to the rootstock? The interstock? To a branch? Or the main shoot?

Any and all help on any of these questions would be most appreciated!

Many thanks and best regards,

1- For Europe mid-August is ideal
2- Depending on the thickness growth, two year olds are
suitable
3- thickness of a pencil
4- in practice you can bud on the branches of a year old

Hopefully you helped with these answers

BR

Many thanks for the reply and kind information.it does help.

However, you say budding can be done on the branches. Is this the only option? Could I possibly bud to the main interstock/tree and prune the top off to encourage growth? Was thinking to bud 3 or 4 varieties onto the main body of the tree and prune the current main shoot off significantly. Would this be possible / a good idea?

Also, can I use dormant wood for budding? I read somewhere that dormant scions can be kept in the fridge for up to 6 months before use. Is this true? If not, how long can I keep them assuming dormand scions can be used?

Many thanks!

Generally most people graft scions in the spring and save their budding for the fall.

Here in zone 6 KS, I bud the first week of Sept. You can bud any age tree, it's just that once the bark gets too old and thick, success rates tend to be low. One year growth is about ideal wood to bud peaches. So you could bud any age tree, as long as the wood you were budding into was one year wood.

You can pretty much use as many buds as you want on a tree, as long as there is space. Leave a good amount of vertical space between each bud. Maybe six to eight inches of vertical space if the buds are lined up vertically. If the buds are on opposite sides of the seedling, then three inches of vertical space is enough.

Whether or not you graft below or above your interstem is based on your goal. If you don't want the effect of the interstem, then you could graft below it, but note that some interstems are used because there is incompatibility with the top scion and the rootstock. In those cases nurseries use an interstem as a sort of "bridge of compatibility" to connect the rootstock and the top scion portion of the tree.

You can store scions for 6 months. The problem you get into with scion storage is that after a certain amount of time the buds want to break while still in the fridge. Success is lower once buds have broken. I collect my scion wood sometime around Feb. here.

many thanks for the kind advice!

I have only manage to find a place that sells scions so far which apparently will be collected around March time. As that seems to be ok I'll get them and will keep them refrigerated until summer and then try my hand at budding them.

My plan is to get four plum varieties and spread them at the distances you suggest on last year's growth. Hopefuly some will take! I've selected varieties that will come out at different times with the aim of having a tree that produces fruit across the summer.

Many thanks for all the help once more and I'll be sure to post some pictures as I go along the process.