Billy wrote in

ct.net.au:

In article ,
enigma wrote:

i think i'll try the rooting pots that Lee Valley sells
on
one branch, & take some cuttings to try to scion onto my
apple. i'm even willing to buy a young apple tree if that
might take a graft easier.

Leaving suckers from rootstock much less the rest of the
tree is bad news for grapes. Instead of pushing through the
graft (scion), the rootstock will preferentially push
native buds to the detriment of the grafted stock. Seems to
be the same thing with my dwarf peach trees. I suggest you
get rootstock to graft onto, if it isn't possible to grow
it on its' own roots.

apples are commonly grafted though. i almost bought a orchard
in upstate NY, where all the trees in one block had just been
regrafted to the new popular varieties. what they do is cut
off the entire crown & then quarter cut the trunk about an
inch, putting in 4 grafts of the latest fad & covering the
graft with beeswax. that way you have trees bearing full tilt
in one year, rather than waiting 5 years for seedlings to get
established... you can also graft 2 or more varieties on one
trunk to save on space. (the reason i didn't buy was 15 acres
was under high tension powerlines & 50+ acres just behind the
orchard & right next to the spring that supplied the farm's
water had been sold to a developer. looked like a headache in
the making).
at any rate, i know apples can be grafted as scions and can
be bud grafted. i just don't know which is a better idea with
the crabapple. my hopeful rootstock tree is not producing
apples. it had a cedar tree right next to it (which the llamas
kindly ate, stopping the cedar-apple rust issue) & hasn't been
pruned in over 15 years. i'm working on getting it in some
kind of reasonable health currently.
lee
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