View Single Post
  #3   Report Post  
Old 10-01-2007, 12:52 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
K K is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,966
Default Grafting an old apple tree

Farm1 writes
"Chris Potts" wrote in message

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.


The grafting I've done (with supervision from someone who knew what
they were doing) was onto seedling apple trees that grew in spots
where I'd put "compost" (yeah I know "compost" is not supposed to have
viable seds in it but mine does). I/we put on heaps of grafts on 2
such trees (maybe 20-30 grafts??? - around that number anyway) and all
but 1 graft took so I don't think that the source tree is all that
important so long as it's an apple (but maybe seedling apple trees are
tougher - dunno).


It matters in this case because the size of the tree is important - most
grafting of apple trees is done to govern the size of the tree, using
'dwarfing' stock.

I don't know where you would obtain rootstocks - presumably from a
specialist fruit nursery. I've got rootstocks for grafting pears by
taking cuttings of suckers from the rootstock of one of my pears.
--
Kay