Hello all,

We are moving house, and in our present garden is a very old gnarled
apple tree which produces a heavy crop of large blue green apples which
we harvest in November and use in late January through to late March
when they go yellow and ripen. I would like to take this apple tree
with us and have a couple of questions about grafting. All the pictures
that I can find of grafting show the scion as a last years shoot, about
as thick as or thicker than a pencil with shiny bark. Our tree does not
have any like this. The new shoots are very spindly, or contorted with
next years fruit buds. Which would we be best way to take scions from
such a tree? Does the scion have to be last years wood, or would an
older thicker branch be better?

The garden at our new house is big enough for a small tree (the parent
is about 5m high with a similar spread which would be too large). Which
rootstock should I use for grafting, and where can I buy one from? We
presently live in North Lincolnshire, and are moving to the Manchester
area, so a supplier nearby either who we could go to talk to would be
ideal.

Thanks for any advice,


Chris Potts