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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 54, Issue 69 Grafting Apple Trees

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  • From: "TIM INMAN" <TIM@HISTORICINTERIORS.COM>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 54, Issue 69 Grafting Apple Trees
  • Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:11:29 -0500

An old-timer taught me to graft (my Grandfather). He had plenty of space in his 'town' orchard, so he didn't really need to graft for space conservation. So why did he graft? Pollination! He taught me to graft a limb of the 'best' pollinator cultivar onto each apple tree in the orchard. That way, he figured, the best possible cross pollinisation could occur. I've read about other old timers doing the same thing to increase home orchard production. Don't know if it holds scientific water, but we always had tons of superb apples.

Tim Inman
Randolph, IA
Zone 4

----- Original Message ----- From: <nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 11:00 AM
Subject: nafex Digest, Vol 54, Issue 69


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Today's Topics:

1. Re: Make a four-on-one apple tree (Steve)
2. Re: Make a four-on-one apple tree (Lon J. Rombough)
3. Re: Bali vs Evans (Steve)
4. Re: Bali vs Evans (loneroc)
5. Re: Bali vs Evans (Steve)


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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:41:03 -0400
From: Steve <SDW12986@aol.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Make a four-on-one apple tree
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <46A9694F.8040504@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed


I saved this post so I could reply when I had time.
First, my long ago experience trying to buy a 4 in one apple tree.....
I may have ordered one twice but this was in the early 80s and I'm not
sure now. Now that I think about it, I think that second one was a pear.
When I first owned my own house and yard, I wanted to have fruit trees
but didn't have a vast amount of space. I saw four-in(on?)- one apple
trees in a catalog and thought that is what I needed. In the spring,
the tree arrived and I planted it. This was long before I learned how to
graft and before I had much of a clue which cultivars might be hardy in
the Adirondacks. Maybe it was a 5 variety tree because I seem to
remember 4 side branches with grafts and the top remaining the original
tree.
Early on, I knew the tree was going to be a problem. The side branches
had obviously been budded with the bud placed on top of the branch near
the trunk. The reason for that placement was obvious. They could shove
the tree into a box with the branches bent upward and not break off the
grafts. The thing was going to be a nightmare to train. Since it was
small, the branches were all lower to the ground than I would want, but
I had to save those low branches to have all the cultivars. Also, since
the buds had been placed where they were, the branches were growing
straight up parallel to the main trunk.
In the end, all that didn't matter because the whole tree was killed on
the 2nd or 3rd winter. Not too many years later, I read up on which
apples were very hardy and then I learned how to graft things myself.

Today, I have 3 trees grafted to multiple cultivars. One must have at
least 8 different types on it. I selected very hardy trees for the
trunk. The two I purchased with multi grafting in mind were Norland and
Rescue apple crab. (Both came from St. Lawrence Nurseries) I didn't cut
the trees back or do anything to them. I just grew them and trained them
to a central leader with the lowest branch high enough to easily mow
under it. As the side branches developed, I would place grafts that
started a foot, to nearly 2 feet, from the trunk. I mostly just used a
simple splice graft though have have also used bark grafts when I wanted
to graft a branch that was much thicker than the scion. This has worked
out very well and I have had no problem keeping things in balance by
pruning. I leave a side branch, or 2, ungrafted to keep the original
cultivar and I have tried to graft the very top with a cultivar that is
not too vigorous.

I do worry a little about viruses. What if one of the grafts carries a
virus that doesn't badly affect that cultivar but is damaging to the
tree chosen for the main trunk? I may possibly have had that happen.
Before I grafted these trees, I had a young Haralson tree. I grafted 4
or 5 branches as I described above. One early spring, I noticed patches
of bark all over the Haralson parts of the tree that had puffed up.
Large areas were raised up an eight of an inch or so. Those areas felt
spongy to the touch. I never saw winter injury like that before or
since. As the tree leafed out, the ungrafted branches wilted and of
course, the grafted branches eventually dried up too. The trunk had died
right from under the grafted parts. Haralson SHOULD be hardy here. I
always wondered if an introduced virus was not tolerated by Haralson and
lead to that kind of injury. (If anyone has any insight into what caused
the puffed up bark, I would be interested.)

Last, I can't figure out why anyone would plant more than one tree in
the same hole. Also, cutting the tree short so that all branches come
from near the ground doesn't sound like a great idea. Of course, mine
are standard size trees. Perhaps on a dwarfing rootstock, the idea might
make sense.

Steve Wilson
zone 3/4


jfruth@tds.net wrote:

Some of us don't want a whole tree full of apples all ripe at the same
time. I wanted an apple tree that started ripening in late July and
finished ripening in October. Here is how I accomplished it:

From a local nursery, I bought two
apple trees that were growing in nursery cans (bare-root would have been
fine but nurseries near here don't offer bare-root tree). These were two
varieties that I wanted to have fruit from. I planted them 20' feet apart
and, the following Spring, I sheared both off at about 18" above the graft.
The tree's immediate response was to produce a flurry of new sprouts and,
throughout the following growing season, I continually removed any sprouts
that grew from below the graft.
The following Spring, I ordered scion wood. My objective was to have
fruit ripening starting in Late July, then Early August, Mid-August, Late
August, Early September, Mid-September, Late September and Early October
(Here in zone 3 we can expect really hard frost in October so later ripening
apples are out of the question).
First, I selected the branch that I wanted to keep, the original apple
variety. Then I selected three other branches that were as close to 90
degrees apart from each other as possible and grafted the scions on these
three. All other branches/sprouts were removed. It took a three tries to
get one scion variety to take. Now I enjoy ripening apples for over a two
and one half month time span. I have since planted other apple trees but
these two are my favorites and the branches are all 4" in diameter.
One potential problem with making a four-on-one tree is that each branch
is very close in height to the others and we are warned that high winds
could easily(?) split such a tree. That hasn't happened (yet?) even though
a nearby maple tree was snapped in half by straight-line winds.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN 56472
For jams, jellies & syrups:
www.bberryfarm.com
(877)265-6856 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]





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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:52:48 -0700
From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Make a four-on-one apple tree
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <97792f49d50d62d1a14b6cac05df4eb9@hevanet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Most nurseries in this area won't sell multiple variety trees any more.
One of the biggest problems was that one variety would almost always
outgrow the rest and either leave the tree unbalanced, or the weaker
ones would get pruned off.
The best multiple variety dwarfs I've seen were grown by Prof. Albert
Heinrich in Corvallis, OR. He espaliered all his trees with a total of
six arms per tree, and each arm was a different variety. He had over
100 varieties in his yard in an amazingly small space. He did his own
grafting, mostlly on M9 as smaller rootstocks didn't work well enough.
He was very diligent in his summer pruning.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at
http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association
"Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
For even more grape lessons, go to http://www.grapeschool.com
For growing supplies and more; http://www.grapegrowersolutions.com



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  • Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 54, Issue 69 Grafting Apple Trees, TIM INMAN, 07/27/2007

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