Grafting plans

This spring is the first time I’ll be trying my hand at grafting apple trees.

I tried to graft 5 pear trees last year (spring 2015), failed, and learned from it. Mistakes included improper healing of the graft, poor sealant of the wounds, and the biggest culprit – using ancient wood from a very old pear tree on the property. Whoops!

This year I’ll be getting a proper grafting knife, parafilm tape, healthy scionwood (1 year old) and (most important) the knowledge of how to mix all these things together to create a healthy little apple tree.

Rootstock will be G.222 (will produce a 10-12′ tree at maturity) from Cummin’s. I’ve got 30 reserved, and 10 different varieties of apple scionwood ordered from Fedco. As you only want about 2 buds’ worth of scionwood per graft, there should be enough for at least 3 grafts per scionwood stick.

Varieties include 6 cider apple varieties:

Dabinett
Bramtot
Kingston Black
Yarlington Mill
Redfield
Golden Russet

And 5 baking/eating varieties:

Keepsake
Honeycrisp
Esopus Spitzenburg
William’s Pride

I’ve also got 5 OHxF87 rootstock coming from Cummin’s, for another attempt at grafting pears – I’m determined to save one DELICIOUS, but sadly unknown, pear from the property that’s seen better days.

I’ve never tasted any other pear as melting, or as absolutely sweet, as this one. Made a really awesome perry, too; it must have a high amount of unfermentable sugars. At least by taking some cuttings last year, the tree has put on some new growth, which I can utilize this year for scionwood. I’ve also got Butt pear scionwood from Fedco on order.

All this in addition to the 4 varieties planted last spring (2015) – Old Pierre, Ashmead’s Kernel, Black Oxford and Wagener – will be a great start to our orchard in 2017. Yum!