North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

On Apr 28, 2009, at 7:23 PM, Alan Haigh wrote:

> 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?
> _______________________________________________
The guy who taught me to graft (in eastern MA, zone 6) talked a fair  
amount about the best time of year to do it.  He recommended field  
grafting apples when the buds on the stock have swollen but before  
they show green, I think.  He talked about weather and temperature all  
sorts of things, and the take-away I got was that Patriot's Day (a  
local holiday in early April) was generally a good time to graft  
apples.  This is consistent with your experience.

Ginda