Mary Shelley and her Dr. Frankenstein would be proud. Human ingenuity at it’s best – fruit tree grafting and the creation of the most awesome and peaceful fruiting monster – !Frankentree! My inspiration for this has been stated before. Last year I learned how to graft down at the Seed Saver’s Exchange farm from Dan Bussey. At the same time I also met via the internet Steven Edholm who writes the blog Turkey Song, and inspired me with his !Frankentree! Since then I have gotten much better at grafting (but still learning), formed The North American Scion Exchange, and have met a bunch of other people who are continuing to inspire and teach me! Following is the story thus far…
When I first learned the craft of grafting, I was taught using the whip and tongue method. I did a bunch of grafts last year using this method, but because of a lack of practice, the wrong kind of knife, and a lack of other proper grafting supplies, only four of the approximately 20 grafts I did took off and were successful. It was disappointing, but a good lesson. Since starting down this path of a DIY lifestyle so long ago, the best way I learn a new skill is by failure. I am no longer scared to mess up and make mistakes. That doesn’t mean it is not frustrating, but by making mistakes it makes me focus harder and do the extra needed research and homework to be successful the next time around. This year I have switched to a new grafting technique called Cleft Grafting. It is a much easier graft to perform, and in most cases just as effective. Below is a series of photos to show how the cleft graft works.
So far all the grafting I have done this season has been top working a tree. Top working is the process of turning over an existing tree to a new variety. Top working a tree has many benefits – if you are unhappy with your current variety, you can top work it with cleft grafts (and other methods) and switch over to a new, tastier or more productive variety. Another aspect of top working a tree is the time in which you will receive fruit from the newly grafted scion wood. The overall age of the tree, and specifically the rootstock, is what really influences fruit production. Son of !Frankentree! started life out as a Haralred, grafted onto to some kind of semi – dwarf rootstock. He was planted about four years ago, and he was at least two to three years old when he got planted. I have been getting Haralred apples off of him for about two years now. Last year when I started grafting onto him, the one apple that took and successfully grew is an apple named Gold Rush. That scion wood put on over a foot and a half of growth last year, and I will be getting one Gold Rush apple this year. So it is not the age of the grafted scion wood, as much as the overall age of the tree that impacts fruit production.
Sometime in the next week or two, I will be receiving my shipment of rootstock for more grafting. This time it will be not just apples, but also plums, peaches, and cherries. I am grafting up a few trees to give to friends, some will find homes here at the homestead, and a lot of them will be going to my in-laws as the start to our new cider orchard. We have mapped out a space and have room for about forty trees in the orchard – I will hopefully be bringing out at least twenty successfully grafted trees this fall to plant! Stay tuned for more grafting updates!! Cheers!
Awesome, I love the ripple effect! Grafting and collecting fruit is addicting. I guess you’re hooked! You can learn to do whip and tongue grafts by just practicing a lot on random prunings until you can get a tight fit. Its all about the fit. Flat surfaces that mate well without a bunch of light showing in between should heal and grow as long as they are wrapped tight with the barks lined up well. The whip and tongue is a little stronger and heals more quickly, but cleft grafts are fine too. I use clefts if the stock is much bigger than the scion, which it often is. I would also add that f you can leave scions long while regrafting a tree, you will get fruit sooner. I learned that from the Grafter’s Handbook. The author makes a distinction between top working and frameworking. In frame working, the main frame of the tree is retained and the new scions are grafted onto smaller wood. In top working the tree is usually hacked was back and new scions stuck into splits in the wood to change the entire top of the tree to something else. If scions with 8 to 10 buds are used in frameworking, typically only a few buds near the tip will grow out into shoots and at least some of the remaining buds are likely to form into fruiting buds which will flower the following season. I have done grafts with much longer scions with 20 or more buds and even some with fruiting buds already on them without much trouble. I’ve even gotten fruit the first year by putting on a scion with flower buds or spurs on it. I think the chances of something going wrong increase the longer the scion is, including drying out and shifting of the splice before healing is complete, but it can be done with care and splinting. Using scions with just 6 to 10 buds though will get you there a little faster. I usually coat the whole scion except for the buds with grafting wax to slow desiccation of the wood to a near stop. This year I’ve been grafting heart shaped trees using multiple pieces all assembled at once! Stay tuned for details…
Love it! Just started thinking about pruning as the snow is finally melting in our garden and small orchard here in Canada… now I have some even better ideas.
Great post! One thing I’m noticing is your labels. You might want to invest in some impressionable, aluminum plant tags. Here’s a link that will be helpful….
http://www.gemplers.com/product/T800/Aluminum-Marking-Tags-Box-of-100
I will use these only once the graft has taken and I know its good. The tags with sharpie marker wear off pretty quick. Maybe if a paint marker was used that might be better. I also salvage metal mini blinds and cut up tags from them. I use an engraving tool for that. In a pinch I can scratch the name in with a sharp tool as well.
Keep on graftin’!!
-LJ
Steven – Thanks for clarifying the difference between top working a tree and frame working. Crabby is top worked, where Son of !Frankentree! is frame worked, got that everyone!
Socratesgonewild – Thanks!! I hope you get addicted to grafting!!
Little John – Those aluminum tags look great, but I think I will try using the metal blinds first, it is more affordable.
Here is what I’d like to try at some point:
1. Plant some seeds
2. Wait a few years to get a decent caliper about a foot off the ground
3. Graft on a dwarf “rootstock”
4. Wait a year or two to get a decent caliper about 2 feet off the ground
5. Graft on a good “frame” variety
6. Once it gets to a decent size, add about 4-6 more varieties.
I had tried my hand at grafting several years ago. I particularly liked doing omega cuts with a grafting tool. I had decent survival rates for the summer, but the rabbits decimated them that winter,