La Puce

Like the containers and azalea.
As for identifying the apple - cant tell by just looking at it on the
screen - no where near that cleaver. I have to work through the
measurements, cutting them open, takes a minimum of 3 but was told to
work on half a bucket - because the features from apple to apple can be
so variable.

But grafting .... I never thought of this! Can I graft on say a trunk
of about 10cm circumference?

It is very possible to graft onto a trunk by a process known as
topworking and the graft technique is done by cleft grafting. This is
done in the dormant season - usually Feb-March. Basically the main
limbs except a couple of branches, which are left to give the sap
something to rise too and are known as sap-drawer branches, are removed
leaving a couple of feet of stump of the main limbs. The edge of the
saw cuts are pared with a knife. The scions is a piece of last seasons
growth of the cultivar you want to cultivate, around 6in in legth and
about the thickness of a pencil. Once prepared, these are inserted
into the cut ends of the limbs. The scion is cut so that the top has a
bud at its end and the other is cut to form a wedge cut on either side
(I knew that my childhood whitling of wood must have a use) so that
there is a bud left on the side of the wedge cut. On the edge of the
stump a vertical cut is made using a chisle into the stump, so the cut
gones. The depth of the cut being the same as the length of the wedge.
This is a brutal process for the tree so you need to have a little
respect, be clean in making cuts and dont damage the bark. The cut is
held open (a flat blade screwdriver is good) and the wedge inserted and
the edge of the bark cut on the wedge aligned with the bark of the
limb. They need to touch. Three pieces of wood can be put into each
limb like this. Having done this fill the top of the cuts with clay or
putty and then seal the whole graft and scion with grafting wax. The
clay or putty stops the wax running down the cut which might prevent
the cut from healing. The idea of the wax is to seal out all the
baddies. I generally run a damp cloth (which has been in Milton or
other Sodium Hypochlorite solution) around the cut so as to reduce the
chance of infection. It sounds far worse than it is. Just aligning
the cambium layers of the tree and the scion by at least 55% should
give a chance of success, provided it does not dry out or the tree id
not stressed by drought. The process can then be repeated on other
branches. This is where you get into making these multy variety apple
trees - Egremont russet this side, discovery over here, that nice one
from across the road.

Last month I visited an orchard which was planted around 1870 and
basically consited of Bramley apples and Victoria plums. The lady who
looked after it from 1920 had some fun with it, all of a sudden you
could spot some Emneth Early or what I think is Tydemans Early
Worcester just appearing off a bough. These were most likely done in a
similar way, just making a wedge and inseting the wood into a T cut in
the bark.

If you want any further help feel free to ask (cliff_the_gardener at
hotmail dot co dot uk)

Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire