Re: [nafex] topworking and high grafting

[Tom Olenio <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hello,

Last spring I cleft grafted a Improved Snow (Fameuse like) apple, onto a 2.5"
diameter trunk sucker, about 4 feet from the ground.  Over the summer the graft
did quite well and the scion grew about 3 feet.  Is this graft in jeopardy of
freezing this winter?

This is my only successful graft to this point.

Would the application of additional grafting wax at the union offer any
protection from winter damage?

If it keeps snowing like this I will be up to my hips in snow going out to the
orchard.  We have had mild winters for years, and we are getting a good ole
fashioned one this year!  Lots of snow!

Any ideas on my cleft graft, and protecting it from freeze damage if necessary?

Regards,
Tom

Claude Jolicoeur wrote:

> A 03:29 00.12.14 -0000, vous avez écrit :
> >I have had several topworking experiments going on, surprisingly
> >similar to those that Bernie has going.
> >I ditto his conclusions about apple.
>
> I also have a couple of cases that substantiate this:
>
> 1- I topgrafted Brown's Apple (an English cider apple) on an adult Cortland
> tree - the graft took off like a rocket and started producing nice apples
> after 3 years. Fine - so I started a tree, grafted 15 in high on a natural
> seedling. It also took off rapidly but, as soon as it grew higher than the
> snow cover (which is usually 5 ft high in my orchard), it started to freeze.
>
> 2- I planted a Shinko (asian pear) tree 10 years ago. Every year, this tree
> freezes hard and starts again from between 1 and 3 feet high. One spring
> after a milder winter, There was a bit of wood from the preceding summer
> that was still alive. I topgrafted it high on a branch of my Golden Spice
> tree. Well, that graft has not frozen yet (but the tree still freezes).
>
> I remember an article Bernie wrote in Pomona many years ago - if I remember
> well, he was writing that the hardy supporting tree should have some
> branches and leaves of his own variety for this to work, and that these
> hardy branches gave hardiness to the graft by starting early the hardening
> process. Do you still hold to this theory, Bernie? Personnally, I think it
> makes a lot of sense.
>
> Claude in Quebec, zone 4, where it can get to -35C in a really cold winter...
>

--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario, Canada
Hardiness Zone 6a



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