Grafting Fruit Wood

[heavyhitterokra]

I've never successfully grafted a tree (I've attempted it more than once) but never with any success.  

For that reason, I'm really intrigued by it and want to learn more about it.  It's my hope to someday graft some paper shell pecan wood from an old favorite pecan tree located in the old part of downtown Tahlequah.  It would be nice to be able to do that before I'm too old to enjoy the fruits of my labor.


Posted March 21st, 2023.

This is a really good instructional video on grafting.

 

By the way, I have some really good, named pawpaw varieties here if anyone is interested in cutting their own scion wood from those mature and bearing trees.  That's what they're here for.  Nothing would make me happier than sharing those with someone.  I have Shenandoah, Susquehanna, Wells, and KC Atwood.  I also have some really hardy native root stock from an un-named variety from Missouri if anyone would like to dig their own root stock from those for grafting to. 

I probably have somewhere around 100 water sprouts that have popped up around my parent trees over the years.  If no one digs them soon, I'll have to start cutting them down to avoid having a thicket of pawpaw trees out there.  So, digging a few dozen of them while they are still dormant would be doing me a huge favor.  With all the rain we've had recently, right now would be the opportune time to do it before they begin budding out.

[macmex]

One of my paw paws should be large enough to graft a limb by next year.
I need to watch the video. (No time right now) My father taught me to graft when I was a teen, but my success has been spotty. Been trying to propagate my mulberry for years by both grafting and cuttings, with zero success. This year I am trying a more refined method of air layering and also cut my scion wood, for grafting, while it was tightly budded and storing them in the fridge, wrapped in damp paper, until the tree I want to graft to is budding. We'll see!

I net Tucson Grower knows a lot more about this than do we!

[macmex]

I have successfully grafted apple and plum but only years ago. The last time I succeeded with a plum was some 6 years ago (I'm guessing). Interestingly, the tree from which I got that graft has since died, and the limb which came from the work I did, on another variety, which doesn't like it here, has taken over that tree. Since arriving in Oklahoma I've tried, at least for 7 or 8 years, to graft a mulberry tree. Mulberries are supposed to be easy to graft but I have bungled it most of the time. One year I succeeded and then lost the grafted tree in the weeds. I went to clear out the weeds and accidentally destroyed my little tree!

Youtube is notorious for how to videos which either leave out important details or else, just plain cheat, making it look like they know what they're doing, when they don't. I've gone over many of these videos on grafting a mulberry and most have been less than helpful.

I can't remember where I found one missing detail (maybe Youtube) and then my son supplied another. We were talking one day and he reminisced about how I used to graft plums, when we first lived out in the sierra in Central Mexico. He reminded me that I had wrapped the grafts in plastic to preserve humidity. Bingo! I had forgotten that! The other detail I found was to cut the scion wood in January, while it's still dormant and graft it onto the root stock only when the root stock is actively budding. I suppose this means that the scion wood wakes up to an already thriving root stock and doesn't have as much chance of drying out.

Finally, through my own experimentation, I believe I've come to the conclusion that with mulberries, it's best to leave the root stock where wherever I find it, grafting onto it en sitio. When I dig up the root stocks and then graft, it seems that the damaged root system makes them more likely to fail. We have mulberry seedlings spring up all over the place, both at home and at work. 

Anyway, I did this graft about three weeks ago. Here's a fuzzy photo of the whole graft. There are two scions grafted onto the root stock. This fall it will be of utmost importance that I move this little tree because it is right up against a chain link fence.



Here's a photo of the upper part of this little grafted tree:



Here's a picture of the lower buds:



Anyway, I am very pleased. I have also been experimenting more with air layering. So far this year I did six air layers and only three look likely to succeed. We'll see.

[macmex]

Here's an update on that tree I grafted.




It's looking very good!

I believe it really helped to wrap the grafted area with plastic wrap, after securing it with electrical tape. Additionally, it appears that there is a real advantage to harvesting the scion wood while it's completely dormant, storing it wrapped in damp paper towels, in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the fridge. Grafting dormant wood to an "awake" tree seems to give the scion more of a chance.

I'm thrilled! I paid $27 for my Illinois Everbearing mulberry tree, when it was a little stick, some years ago. After a couple years we decided we'd really like to get another but didn't want to pay so much. I think I've been working on this "grafting project" for something like 7 years!

When I got back from SC I remembered where I had one more mulberry seedling that I could graft to. So, I retrieved my bag of scion wood from the fridge and grafted it with the plastic wrap, etc. It's already budding!

[macmex]

Update on the above mulberry graft. It definitely worked! Yesterday I was examining it and the buds, pictured above, have now produced 2 1/2' branches! I did several other grafts, all later than that one, and it seemed that all failed. Yesterday, however, I was cleaning out the spot where one had "failed" and was thrilled to find two sprouts.




The left hand sprout came from the ground, and would be the wild mulberry root making an effort to survive. The right hand sprout is the graft, which is indeed starting to grow. I accidentally damaged it when examining it, so we'll see if it survives.

The lesson I've learned is that I need to cut my scions while the wood is completely dormant and store them in the crisper drawer of the fridge, in a bag with damp paper towels. Then, it is important to do the graft right when the host plant is beginning to break buds and show green. This gives the graft immediate access to the sap it needs for survival. Waiting later to do the graft apparently causes problems because of the heat. Later grafts are much less inclined to take, though, as seen in this photo, they may.

I'm very excited to have at least one grafted mulberry success. This is my FAVORITE fruit tree. In two years it can be fruiting and the Illinois Everbearing Mulberry produces fruit for about two months. I love to go out there and eat the berries, straight off the tree.

[woodeye]

Grafts are looking great, macmex! Good job!