grafting apple trees in WA state

I have owned and operated a commercial grafting business since 1980. here we are grafting apple trees near the Canadian border. This is just a short demo of one technique.
a couple of years ago my company grafted 800 acres of grapes for E&J Gallo. at the time I was running a crew of 50 people. I am really enjoying the pace of just working with a couple of people on a very small job here close to home. please comment and questions are welcome.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• grafting
• orchard
• apples
• variety
• fuji
• change varieties
• chainsaw
• knives
• propagation
• washington
• Oroville
• WA
• fruit tree grafting

[73scamp]

Great job, I didn't know how that was done. Thanks......

[1963impala2dr]

@73scamp you are welcome

[brandongunn2003]

Liked the video. What kind of knife are you using, where can I get one.

Thanks.......

[1963impala2dr]

@brandongunn2003 thank you. I appreciate you watching. years ago, I had several dozen grafting knives made up as per my specs by a company in Germany. I thought they would last a lifetime, but actually, I am almost out of them. I look for steel that is tempered just right so that it is hard enough to hold an edge, but soft enough to sharpen fairly easily. too hard and the final edge will chip little pieces out. too soft and the final edge will roll over.

[1963impala2dr]

@brandongunn2003 get a good J.A. Henckels boning knife. then cut the end off, leaving about a 3.5 - 4 inch blade. after cutting the end off, the boning knife blade will be thick enough so that it does not "flex" when you make your cut. cant have any flex in the blade if you are to make a super straight cut.. which is what you need when cutting grafting scions.. a limber blade will allow the cut to "scoop" and can leave an air pocket in the graft. hope this helps.

thanks

[jamesryanphoto]

If I have an Apple tree suffering from fire blight and I cut it down to about 3 ft tall and graft disease resistant shoots onto it will the tree then become disease resistant or dose the rootstock need to be disease resistant.

[1963impala2dr]

@jamesryanphoto generally, you'd want a disease resistant root stock, but I'm not sure if fire blight is systemic or air borne so I cant tell you if grafting is the cure. I've not seen it much in apples but a LOT in pears, especially in a wet spring such as this one. The pear growers treat it like leprosy! they cut it out, transport it out of the orchard and burn it!. you'll have to research the disease further, but I've never never had a call for that particular situation.

[1963impala2dr]

@capsluvbass thank you. I'll be starting my season soon. and I'm on the road booking work as we speak. .good for grandpa!!

[capsluvbass]

This video was great! I've always had an interest in grafting. My grandfather who grew up in Georgia grafts almost anything that will stand still for it, so I guess it was wise he chose trees! :D You're extremely great at what you do, I hope it brings you a lot of joy!