thetrooper
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Post by thetrooper on Dec 15, 2021 18:32:38 GMT -6
Hey guys. I have never grafted any fruit trees, but this year am going to buy some rootstock to make a few new pears and apples. Also have a couple other things in mind and wanted some opinions. I have matuted orchard at my place with a lot of apple and pear so been around fruit trees for awhile but totally green with grafting. 1. I have a handful of the garbage callery pears that have popped up in my reforestation zone. Can I graft quality pear varieties onto these? 2. I have 2 big ornamental crabs in the orchard which were untruthfully sold to me years ago as dogo. The apples are smaller than peas and dont come off. Should I leave them in the orchard for pollination? Or could I graft a good apple into these? 3. I have 2 apple trees that are on the other side of my farm. These 2 varieties are not found in my orchard. I would like to graft a couple small branches onto my orchard trees for pollination will this work? 4. Does anyone know what kind of pears are pictured below? They are found amongst a bunch of callery pears so I didnt know if they were a hybrid but they are gold ball sized and taste ok. These are from a spot I go to at work.     |
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Post by smsmith on Dec 15, 2021 18:57:20 GMT -6
Hey guys. I have never grafted any fruit trees, but this year am going to buy some rootstock to make a few new pears and apples. Also have a couple other things in mind and wanted some opinions. I have matuted orchard at my place with a lot of apple and pear so been around fruit trees for awhile but totally green with grafting. 1. I have a handful of the garbage callery pears that have popped up in my reforestation zone. Can I graft quality pear varieties onto these? 2. I have 2 big ornamental crabs in the orchard which were untruthfully sold to me years ago as dogo. The apples are smaller than peas and dont come off. Should I leave them in the orchard for pollination? Or could I graft a good apple into these? 3. I have 2 apple trees that are on the other side of my farm. These 2 varieties are not found in my orchard. I would like to graft a couple small branches onto my orchard trees for pollination will this work? 4. Does anyone know what kind of pears are pictured below? They are found amongst a bunch of callery pears so I didnt know if they were a hybrid but they are gold ball sized and taste ok. These are from a spot I go to at work. 1. Yep 2. Ornamental crabs are great pollinators. It's possible to topwork them to something else if you desire. 3.Yep, as long as your grafts take 4. I'm guessing they are simply a large fruited seedling of callery or bradford. When a callery or bradford pear is pollinated by a larger fruited pear (or vice versa) the resulting seedlings show a lot of variability. |
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thetrooper
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https://youtube.com/channel/UCTABKyXSkmW2MWSabMLnQHw
Posts: 106
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Post by thetrooper on Dec 15, 2021 19:05:44 GMT -6
Hey guys. I have never grafted any fruit trees, but this year am going to buy some rootstock to make a few new pears and apples. Also have a couple other things in mind and wanted some opinions. I have matuted orchard at my place with a lot of apple and pear so been around fruit trees for awhile but totally green with grafting. 1. I have a handful of the garbage callery pears that have popped up in my reforestation zone. Can I graft quality pear varieties onto these? 2. I have 2 big ornamental crabs in the orchard which were untruthfully sold to me years ago as dogo. The apples are smaller than peas and dont come off. Should I leave them in the orchard for pollination? Or could I graft a good apple into these? 3. I have 2 apple trees that are on the other side of my farm. These 2 varieties are not found in my orchard. I would like to graft a couple small branches onto my orchard trees for pollination will this work? 4. Does anyone know what kind of pears are pictured below? They are found amongst a bunch of callery pears so I didnt know if they were a hybrid but they are gold ball sized and taste ok. These are from a spot I go to at work. 1. Yep 2. Ornamental crabs are great pollinators. It's possible to topwork them to something else if you desire. 3.Yep, as long as your grafts take 4. I'm guessing they are simply a large fruited seedling of callery or bradford. When a callery or bradford pear is pollinated by a larger fruited pear (or vice versa) the resulting seedlings show a lot of variability. Thanks a bunch. If I graft the orchard tree branches with some new scions early spring when it's still cold before bud break, will the new scion flower this year? |
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Post by smsmith on Dec 15, 2021 19:11:44 GMT -6
1. Yep 2. Ornamental crabs are great pollinators. It's possible to topwork them to something else if you desire. 3.Yep, as long as your grafts take 4. I'm guessing they are simply a large fruited seedling of callery or bradford. When a callery or bradford pear is pollinated by a larger fruited pear (or vice versa) the resulting seedlings show a lot of variability. Thanks a bunch. If I graft the orchard tree branches with some new scions early spring when it's still cold before bud break, will the new scion flower this year? I would cut your scions when the trees are fully dormant (I don't know when that is in your location, maybe early February?) and store them in a ziploc bag in the coolest part of your fridge. Then graft them to your desired tree branches after bud break in the spring. The old saying is to topwork when the tree leaves are the "size of a mouse's ear". You actually don't want your grafted scions to flower the first year. If you have grafted a scion with fruit buds, it may indeed bloom that first year. You want your scions to have leaf buds, not flower buds. Scions should be the previous year's growth (e.g. you cut sticks that grew in '21 in your dormant season of '22). Most of the time (not always) when you use a first year scion they won't have fruit buds. Clear as mud?  |
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Post by Reagan on Dec 15, 2021 19:16:00 GMT -6
I’m no expert but I took my first stab at grafting last spring. Most apples failed. I think 1 scion took so I need to try again. I did have success on persimmon. I’m hoping what I learned on persimmon will translate to better apple success this year.
If you have any persimmon on your place, I can get you some good scion.
I have a few of those damn callery pears too. I plan to graft them all this year. I’m going to cut scion from a couple pears belonging to friends and I found an interesting pear in Miamisburg. Now I’m wondering if that one is a callery that was pollinated by something else. The fruit looked a little strange and there were a bunch rotting on the ground.
I have 6 purchased crabs on the way for this spring. I think I’m getting the sickness
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thetrooper
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Posts: 106
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Post by thetrooper on Dec 15, 2021 19:20:03 GMT -6
Thanks a bunch. If I graft the orchard tree branches with some new scions early spring when it's still cold before bud break, will the new scion flower this year? I would cut your scions when the trees are fully dormant (I don't know when that is in your location, maybe early February?) and store them in a ziploc bag in the coolest part of your fridge. Then graft them to your desired tree branches after bud break in the spring. The old saying is to topwork when the tree leaves are the "size of a mouse's ear". You actually don't want your grafted scions to flower the first year. If you have grafted a scion with fruit buds, it may indeed bloom that first year. You want your scions to have leaf buds, not flower buds. Scions should be the previous year's growth (e.g. you cut sticks that grew in '21 in your dormant season of '22). Most of the time (not always) when you use a first year scion they won't have fruit buds. Clear as mud? Crystal clear smsmith thanks a bunch |
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thetrooper
Full Member
https://youtube.com/channel/UCTABKyXSkmW2MWSabMLnQHw
Posts: 106
Likes: 171
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Post by thetrooper on Dec 15, 2021 19:38:29 GMT -6
I’m no expert but I took my first stab at grafting last spring. Most apples failed. I think 1 scion took so I need to try again. I did have success on persimmon. I’m hoping what I learned on persimmon will translate to better apple success this year. If you have any persimmon on your place, I can get you some good scion. I have a few of those damn callery pears too. I plan to graft them all this year. I’m going to cut scion from a couple pears belonging to friends and I found an interesting pear in Miamisburg. Now I’m wondering if that one is a callery that was pollinated by something else. The fruit looked a little strange and there were a bunch rotting on the ground. I have 6 purchased crabs on the way for this spring. I think I’m getting the sickness That's awesome you have persimmon. I dont have any mature persimmon. I got a bunch that are only 2 years old or so and a few that still need planted. Are yours wild OH persimmons or are they planted ones? I got a big block of mature apple and pears I planted and some younger dolgo/chestnut crabs behind it. I got a bunch of dolgo/chestnut seedlings on the other side of the farm. There is an ancient old giant apple tree that was there i want to get scions off that and a monster old pear tree too. I figure if they lasted this long in identical conditions they gotta be hardy and good. The last one I want to take scions/seedlings is a wild apple that i call the warrior apple. This thing is maximum 9 years old probably 7-8 because it was in a total bare sod area to begin with. This thing is probably 15ft tall thick trunked and loaded with fruit that stays til late Nov. I didnt even notice it until it beared fruit last year because it was COMPLETELY covered in grape vines/6ft tall goldenrod/blackberries, a bunch of junk wash trees blocking its sun out and a bunch of other junk couldn't believe it was even alive. The thing had shape to it like it had been pruned and seemed very disease free. I cut off all the junk and freed it last year pruned it a bit in winter fruit isn't that great but the deer like it |
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 15, 2021 20:28:52 GMT -6
I’m no expert but I took my first stab at grafting last spring. Most apples failed. I think 1 scion took so I need to try again. I did have success on persimmon. I’m hoping what I learned on persimmon will translate to better apple success this year. If you have any persimmon on your place, I can get you some good scion. I have a few of those damn callery pears too. I plan to graft them all this year. I’m going to cut scion from a couple pears belonging to friends and I found an interesting pear in Miamisburg. Now I’m wondering if that one is a callery that was pollinated by something else. The fruit looked a little strange and there were a bunch rotting on the ground. I have 6 purchased crabs on the way for this spring. I think I’m getting the sickness Which crabs did you purchase? |
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Post by Reagan on Dec 15, 2021 20:53:40 GMT -6
I bought a few from Whitetail Crabs.
Droptine Crabapple (4)
30-06 Crabapple. (2)
Crossbow Crabapple. (2)
I suffer from analysis paralysis. Root stock, variety, cost, availability etc etc. spent last year looking and not doing. These were a bit of impulse purchase. I should really buy rootstock and start grafting more.
I did find a new wild crab that hasn’t produced yet. It’s close to the cabin so I’d like to graft it to some eating apples. I also found a couple more smaller wild crabs in deer friendly locations.
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Post by Reagan on Dec 15, 2021 20:55:37 GMT -6
I’m no expert but I took my first stab at grafting last spring. Most apples failed. I think 1 scion took so I need to try again. I did have success on persimmon. I’m hoping what I learned on persimmon will translate to better apple success this year. If you have any persimmon on your place, I can get you some good scion. I have a few of those damn callery pears too. I plan to graft them all this year. I’m going to cut scion from a couple pears belonging to friends and I found an interesting pear in Miamisburg. Now I’m wondering if that one is a callery that was pollinated by something else. The fruit looked a little strange and there were a bunch rotting on the ground. I have 6 purchased crabs on the way for this spring. I think I’m getting the sickness That's awesome you have persimmon. I dont have any mature persimmon. I got a bunch that are only 2 years old or so and a few that still need planted. Are yours wild OH persimmons or are they planted ones? I got a big block of mature apple and pears I planted and some younger dolgo/chestnut crabs behind it. I got a bunch of dolgo/chestnut seedlings on the other side of the farm. There is an ancient old giant apple tree that was there i want to get scions off that and a monster old pear tree too. I figure if they lasted this long in identical conditions they gotta be hardy and good. The last one I want to take scions/seedlings is a wild apple that i call the warrior apple. This thing is maximum 9 years old probably 7-8 because it was in a total bare sod area to begin with. This thing is probably 15ft tall thick trunked and loaded with fruit that stays til late Nov. I didnt even notice it until it beared fruit last year because it was COMPLETELY covered in grape vines/6ft tall goldenrod/blackberries, a bunch of junk wash trees blocking its sun out and a bunch of other junk couldn't believe it was even alive. The thing had shape to it like it had been pruned and seemed very disease free. I cut off all the junk and freed it last year pruned it a bit in winter fruit isn't that great but the deer like it All my persimmon are wild. I have big trees that produce and a lot of small saplings that I’ve been grafting to female. |
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Post by Bwoods11 on Dec 15, 2021 22:11:25 GMT -6
I planted a few persimmon in Iowa. Excited to see the results. Surviving so far.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 16, 2021 9:03:41 GMT -6
I always wanted a persimmon tree. I tried and tried on my old place (zone 5a/4b) and they just couldn't survive winters. Even paid for some expensive "winter hardy" grafted varieties from England's Orchard...no dice.
Not that many soft mast options for northern growers.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Dec 16, 2021 18:10:41 GMT -6
What kind of pear varieties would work in Zone 5/Iowa ?
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Post by smsmith on Dec 16, 2021 18:56:54 GMT -6
I always wanted a persimmon tree. I tried and tried on my old place (zone 5a/4b) and they just couldn't survive winters. Even paid for some expensive "winter hardy" grafted varieties from England's Orchard...no dice. Not that many soft mast options for northern growers. What Pear would work in Iowa ? Lots of them will work there |
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Post by Bwoods11 on Dec 16, 2021 18:58:21 GMT -6
I worded that wrong … I guess what I meant is name a standout high production pear? I have zero that have survived in MN (long term)
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