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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Field Grafting

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  • From: "Michael Phillips" <michael@herbsandapples.com>
  • To: "'Raby, Brian'" <brian.raby@roche.com>, "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Field Grafting
  • Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 09:21:49 -0400

A bench-grafted rootstock is set aside to callus. I know Bill MacKentley at
St. Lawrence Nurseries does much of his grafting in February and March, then
stores his thousands of trees in dormant condition but warm enough so that
the grafts never freeze. I'm doing bench grafting now in early April as the
rootstock just recently arrived. It's still mostly cold out here in northern
New Hampshire, say 20s at night and 40s by day. The grafted trees are
positioned upright in trays of moist wood chips in a sheltered place "on the
cool side" like the understory of my barn. Apple calluses up nicely in the
40-50F degree range; that's the goal. Bench grafts could be pushed in a
greenhouse environment but then bud growth response may require that each
root should have been individually potted up then hardened off to then be
planted out. I will take the bare root stock from cool storage and get these
in the ground by the first week of May, possibly sooner, depending on the
how the weather plays out.

The grafting I did in the field was whip-and-tongue, using a medical rubber
band for support and the black tree gook (memory lapse!). Bark grafting can
easily be done with over-sized rootstock like the 5/8 inch I described. You
can also "offset" a whip-and-tongue graft on an intermediate root when you
prefer to not make the union too high up the stock... by which I mean the
diagonal cut on the rootstock does not come to a single point. The portion
of the exposed rootstock at the top will callus over as well; just be sure
to "paint" this as you do the exposed tip of the scion. Again, with the
"black gook that can't be named" or Doc Farwell's.


Michael Phillips
Lost Nation Orchard, NH
www.GrowOrganicApples.com








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