This is the first year I am grafting apple trees. I have one tree
that is very old but has excellent apples and I have a younger one
which has nice flowers but not so good apples. I wanted to graft twigs
from the good tree to the not so good one.
I used two techniques and you can google those terms if you want
to find other resources.
Chip budding
Cleft grafting
Selecting the right twigs from the "good apple tree"
From all the documents I found it was not quite clear which kinds
of branches or twigs to use for grafting. Let me therefore explain
this: You need a fresh shoot that came just recently.
Old apple trees have even on small branches moss or lichens growing.
Those branches may carry good fruits but they can NOT be used
for grafting:
What you need is a fresh shoot that came out just recently. They
grow usually straight up and don't really carry fuit. They are
called scions and this is what you need for grafting:
Chip budding
This is supposed to be the easiest technique but it is a bit of
fiddling. Both the scions (twigs from the good tree) and the root stock (the tree to which you transplant) have to have similar diameters for this
method to work well. During chip budding the cambium (the soft growing part of the tree located between the wood and bark) between the pice from the good apple
tree and the root stock needs to be aligned.
Tools that you need
Sharp knife. A opinel No.8 or No.9 carbon steel pocket knife works very well.
Pruning scissors to cut scions form the good tree.
Electrical tape. To hold and protect the chip bud once it has
been inserted into the wood stock.
Clean the blades of the pruning scissors and the knife with a bit
of alcohol before you start and let the blades dry.
How to graft using the chip budding method
Cut a single bud together with a bit of wood out of
a scion from "the good tree". To do this you make two cuts
with the knife as shown in figure 1). First a short cut
below the bud and then a long cut from above the bud behind it
and down to meet the first cut. Take the bud off (you can hold it
with your thumb between thumb and knife blade after the second cut).
Put the bud aside but don't touch the fresh cut. Make a similar
cut on the wood stock and discard the piece you cut out.
Insert the bud into the cut on the root stock.
Wrap it with electrical tape but do not cover the actual bud. Wrap it such that the glue side
of the tape is outside. That is: no glue touches the bark and you just
glue the tape layers to them selfs.
Time to do the chip budding
Just before start of spring. The very cold nights should be over
but there might still be a bit of snow on the ground. The trees should be
dry (not a rainy day).
The electrical tape must be removed in summer.
Cleft graft
I like this method because it allows you to use a bigger branch from
the root stock (the tree to which you transplant) and you use two scions (twigs from the good tree). The graft is successful even if only one scion starts
to grow properly. The scions are well secured in a v-cut on a branch from
the root stock.
Tools that you need
Sharp knife. A opinel No.8 or No.9 carbon steel pocket knife works very well.
Pruning scissors to cut scions form the good tree and to cut the top
off a suitable branch on the root stock.
Cotton butcher cord and grafting compound. I made my own compound
and I explain below how to make the compound.
Grafting compound: a mixture of warm bee's wax and oil (see further down).
Clean the blades of the pruning scissors and the knife with a bit
of alcohol before you start and let the blades dry.
How to graft using the cleft grafting method
On the root stock you cut off the top of a branch. That is: use a branch at least twice as thick as the scions and snip the top off with pruning scissors. A branch that has about 1cm diameter is perfect.
It's a clean horizontal cut on the root stock
Take the knife and cut from the top down right through the middle (about 2cm deep). We will insert two scions into this v-cut. You don't need to make
a real v-cut. One single cut is enough and it will split open when we push
the scions in.
Take a scion and sharpen it into a v-arrow shape. Two clean cuts,
one on each side. The v-shape should be as long and flat as possible.
Take a second scion and apply the same cut.
On the wood stock you pry the v-cut open with the knife blade and
you insert one of the "sharpened scion" such that outer bark of the scion
and the wood stock align. The cambium of the wood stock and the cambium (the soft growing part of the tree located between the wood and bark) of one side
of the scion needs to align. Insert the second scion on the other side.
Wrap the grafted area with butcher cord and apply grafting compound as shown
below. Don't worry if a bit of compound gets into gap between the branches.
You want to seal this to prevent rain water from getting in.
Time to do the cleft graft
Just before start of spring. The very cold nights should be over
but there might still be a bit of snow on the ground. The trees should be
dry (not a rainy day).
The butcher cord must be removed during the summer. Cut it carefully off with
a knife.
Make your own grafting compound
You need:
1 part bee's wax
1/2 part petroleum jelly (Vaseline)
2 parts boiled linseed oil
Melt everything in a small pot on the stove and let it cool down
a bit. Apply
the warm liquid with a small brush. It should not be too hot. You don't want
to cause any burns on the tree. You should just about be able to hold the
metal pot in your hands without getting burned yourself. That's the right
temperature. The compound will harden immediately
on the tree as the wood is cold (we do the grafting in early
spring).
Update summer 2016: Results
The grafting as described here did fail. The procedure was probably correct but the timing was wrong.
An experienced gardener recommended this to me to have a better success rate: Cut the fresh shoots while there is still a little bit
of snow on the ground. Wrap them in slightly wet paper and put them in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Wait 4 weeks until spring really starts and temperatures are well above zero during the day and during the night.
Get the shoots from the fridge and start grafting. As well: do a number of graftings not just one or two. Do at least 4. It's normal that some fail.
