North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Gary Woods <gwoods@albany.net>]

Stop me before I murder some more perfectly good scions:

Last spring, I got several apple scions through the Seed Saver's Exchange.
I had read up on grafting, attended a session at the meet in Decorah the
previous summer, got a nice sharp knife that passed the thumb test
(fortunately, the cut was so clean it healed quickly!), and all that.

I made a number of grafts, cleft ones in an attempt to "top work" an
ancient boundary row apple on growth perhaps an inch in diameter, an inlay
(?) graft on similar growth, and a number of whip-and-tongue ones on a
lackluster red delicious in the back yard.  I had misplaced some acrylic
sealer I bought, so used the heavy bottom gunk from  an old can of acrylic
house paint to seal the grafts after taping them with some biodegradable
grafting tape bought at the same time as the knife and the "Doc Farwell's
Grafting Seal," which I found a week after doing all this.

The base trees had broken dormancy and were starting to flower; scions had
been kept in a plastic bag in the vegetable bin in the fridge and were
still dormant; nice green cambium visible when I made the cuts; everything
lined up, I hope correctly.  The success rate was, I think zero, though
some scions had green under the bark into fall, so I didn't cut anything
off, hoping they may "break" this spring.

I know there's as much art as science in this; have I given enough
information to go on?   I have Ed Fackler's book, which Dan Busey of Seed
Savers swears is all anybody needs.

Thanks,


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G