Comments on: Making a Graft in Your Small Kitchen Garden

By: Daniel Gasteiger

Daniel Gasteiger — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:16:11 +0000

Gary: Thanks for visiting my site. I encourage you to phone some orchards and ask whether they’ll give you–or sell you–branches they remove when they prune (but explain why you want the branches so they understand you’re not looking for firewood). If they will let you have cuttings, find out when they’ll be pruning and that will be a great time to do your grafting. In Connecticut, early to mid March should be a good time to do this work: it’s usually not bitter cold, but the trees are still dormant. You can collect scions and hold them for many weeks as long as they remain cold. If you’re going to hold them so long, get extra-long twigs so there’s plenty of scion left when you cut away wood from the dried out cut end. I prefer to harvest scions and graft with them in the same day, but that may not be practical when you don’t have a nearby source.

By all means graft several varieties of apples onto the same tree, and good luck!

-Daniel

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:41:33 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to do an easy to follow write up with pictures. I know how much extra time this takes and how valuable time is.
I’m excited to start grafting on 2 trees in my yard that are healthy but do not produce good apples. My question is around the timing of this. I live in Connecticut. When do you cut your scions and when do you do the grafting?
Also I don’t have any trees on my property that I would take a scion from so I will be heading out to orchard to get some. I was thinking of putting more than one variety on the same tree. I know it’s done with some other fruit. Any reason I couldnt do the same with an apple tree?

Thanks again!

By: admin

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 03:46:59 +0000

Pamela: What a pain for you! I’d contact the store immediately where you bought the tree and ask their policy about a tree that’s obviously diseased or damaged. Given it’s a big-box store, they’ll likely replace it without offering insight about what might be wrong with it.

At the same time, it can be very educational to research your tree’s problem online. You might identify a simple-to-treat virus, bacteria, fungus, or insect, and reverse the apparent decline of the tree. There are many great web sites to help diagnose plant diseases. Here’s one you might try: Kearneysville

It’s possible that leaves are curling because of over- or under-watering. You’d expect to see all the leaves look stressed in this circumstance. However, perhaps the shape of the hole you dug or the composition of soil you added back into the hole when planting somehow diverts water from some of the roots–or leaves some (but not all) of the roots submerged most of the time in water. This could kill foliage on the corresponding side of the plant.

In any case, many stores will “exchange” a newly-purchased but dying tree without collecting the one they originally sold you. If you can afford the room in your yard, AND the store gives you a replacement without collecting the original, consider planting the replacement in a different location and then try to cure whatever problem the first tree has. You might learn a lot that will serve well should you encounter similar problems with other plants.

Good luck!

By: Pamela Derby

Pamela Derby — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:31:48 +0000

I bought a grafted tree with three different apples on the tree from a local “box store”. One of the grafts is dying (leaves curling up and turning brown) and there is a darkened area on the stump that appears to be growing larger. Should I return the entire tree (she is about a month in the ground) or do you think she will recover? It is the fuji stem that is failing.

By: Terrell

Terrell — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:20:35 +0000

I really like this information i would really like this info it really helps me understand my plant biology class.

By: Topics about Kitchen » Making a Graft in Your Small Kitchen Garden | Your Small Kitchen …

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:10:25 +0000

[...] admin created an interesting post today on Making a Graft in Your Small Kitchen Garden | Your Small Kitchen …Here’s a short outlineA makeshift bucket of twigs cut from pruned branches hangs in the green apple tree I’m converting into a red apple tree. For the past many posts, Your. [...]

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Condensed Knowledge - March 22, 2009 | Raoul Pop — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:30:19 +0000

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