cleft and rind graft follow up

This is the somewhat dissapointing follow up to a cleft and rind grafting video I put up a year ago. This tree was unlucky. We had a great deal of rain which predisposed to fungal disease, and due to lack of care this particular tree had some pruning rubbish piled up against it and also the grass and weeds were not controlled, all of which reduced the flow of air and further predisposed to disease. Some fungicide might have helped. I have done much better than this in earlier years.

5 out of 9 grafts are alive as of late April. I plan to put up another short video in late summer to show how this has done, in the interest of showing 'warts and all'.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• graft
• grafting
• fruitwise
• stephen
• hayes

[stephenhayesuk]

please note, this sad tree has now been cut down, Julia couldn't stand the sight of it!

see my more recent series of videos on grafting over Suntan and Ashmead's Kernel apples which show that the technique does actually work very well given the right care, which this tree did not get.

[DamonBKnox]

Well man, I hope this one picks up for ya. Generally how many season after a graft like this should you expect a decent harvest? How old is this rootstock?

[stephenhayesuk]

Hi Damon. The answer as you might guess is 'it depends'.

With good dsuccess you could be getting a crop 2 or 3 years after grafting.

The quickest way, although laborious, is to 'top work' a tree over at 20 or 30 different points rather than cut back hard and just a few grafts like this.

In view of the interest in this, I will film and post a few more videos of top working Ihave done more successfully elsewhere in the orchard.

Frankly this particular specimen is awful.

[agrotis79]

I would cut way down to the bottom of this tree where the trunk is healthy and graft onto that...

the tree looks sick higher up. I say saw it off!

[fossilman2]

Thanks for these vids. I am going to attempt a graft of some winter banana apple scions on the wild pacific crabapple on my boggy site. It is likely the only rootstock that can take the high water table and atrocious weather out by the ocean.

[DamonBKnox]

Excellent. Can't wait for the video. Thanks for the info sir.

[MadBadVoodo]

Five Stars!!