North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

I was at a site today where I'm converting huge seedling apple trees into something more desirable by grafting them over.  What I notice here and when I think about it is the case at other sites is that my success rates are near 100%  when I do the grafting just before bud-break.  Not just more takes but much more growth.

 

Micheal Phillips mentioned much better results from very early grafting in a post recently confirming something I already had observed.  I am a careless grafter who doesn't disinfect anything and I do all my cuts with a pruning shear at a rate of a graft per 5 minutes.  None of this matters nearly as much as getting the grafting done early as far as I can see. 

 

This is in zone 5 to 6 in southeastern NY so it may be only pertainable to relatively short growing seasons but I think it's interesting that I've never heard of this as being an important factor in grafting.  Am I making too much of limited evidence?