It was a busy weekend at the farm, with native prairie planting, this, starting vegetable seeds, and other farm chores (including messing around with a new wifi network via cell data network, so far unsuccessfully).
One of the tasks was to start the apple rootstock and scionwood I had received (purchased back in November for my birthday), and start the grape cuttings I had taken in early December. I should also mention planting red heather in the raised bed (as a nursery) which came along with the apple rootstock two weeks ago. I’m very excited for the heather, as a potential bee forage and to go in planting along with red-twig dogwoods which I have ten or so recently transplanted, originally from cuttings.
Apple Tree Chip Bud Grafting
Materials:
- 10x Bud 9 rootstock from Fedco Trees
- Belle de Boskoop, Sweet 16, and Sansa scionwood also from Fedco
- Knife, candle, parafilm, tape, marker
Grafting tools. The candle is for sterilizing the knife.
I have done chip bud grafting all of once before, on hibiscus in my horticulture class. Needless to say I don’t expect all of them to work. In fact I ‘cheated’ a bit and did 14 total grafts, so 4 of my rootstocks have two grafts -trading increased infection risk for increased likelihood of success.
There are actually stories behind the three scionwoods I chose. Sweet 16 is an apple developed by the U of M that I really wanted to plant when I was 16. However, I couldn’t convince my parents to buy trees that particular year, and so nothing came of it, until now. So now I have not one but four rootstocks with buds of this started on them. I also think it will make a great all-purpose apple.
Sansa, well, that apple is definitely here partly as a nod to Game of Thrones. It’s also the product of collaboration between Japanese and New Zealand breeders, two countries I highly esteem and wish to visit. It’s also an early apple, and I think would make a good overall addition to my orchard.
Belle de Boskoop. Here I was really looking at the cooking properties of an apple, our primary use for them in my family. It’s also a European apple, and high acid, so I thought it would make an interesting edition to the orchard as well.
Chip bud graft partially visible on the top rootstock under a partial wrapping of parafilm.
Chip bud grafting is very simple, cut a tiny piece of bark/bud from the scionwood, and place in an equivalently tiny notch on the rootstock. Wrap with parafilm to keep it moist, and plant. The key is attempting to match cambium layers, which I hope I’ve done well. I then planted them out in the raised bed of the garden, where I will monitor them, keep them watered, and if the grafts take, transplant to the orchard in a year.
I actually have plans for those grafts which fail. The rootstock there will be used as a source of cuttings to make more rootstock, and I plan to use trees in the existing apple orchard for scionwood. In particular the yellow apple tree (yellow transparent?) which we are particularly fond of for applesauce which has been here since we bought the farm.
If one graft of each of my scionwood varieties succeeds, I will be quite happy.
Not one of my hibiscus grafts back in class worked.
Grape Cuttings
I took grape cuttings back in December while I was pruning the grapes (pruning, incidentally, is still very much a skill in development). All were healthy, 8-16 inches long, and cut appropriately. I had three varieties: Bluebell, King in the North, and one unknown (Swenson, Edelweiss, or a Concord, we’ll see which clearly when it fruits). My grape vines are largely of unknown type because my dad did some unsolicited replanting of them a few years ago while doing some work on the field, and after accidentally killing several.
Per instructions (The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture) I refrigerated the cuttings overwinter, some inside and some outside in a sand filled pot. I then soaked the cuttings overnight in warm water (replacing it twice to keep it warm and stimulate the buds). I then dipped them in rooting hormone and planted them into the raised bed near its edge. I am hoping the sunny-stone warmed soil of the raised bed will be sufficient for callus formation and rooting.
I’ve got about 50 cuttings, planning on a low success rate.
Cuttings and grafted apple trees in the raised bed shortly after planting.
Updates to follow!