Between rain showers, I have been inspecting all the grafts I made earlier this Spring. New buds on the scions are emerging but stump sprouts are trying to over take the scion. The photo at right is a typical example of what I'm seeing in my orchard (photo at right). Hidden between vigorously growing stump sprouts are 2 new shoots growing from the scion. Note that the stump sprouts have red pigmented leaves and stems typical of juvenile pecan tissues. The buds emerging from the scion are green in color (an indication of sexually mature tissue). If this graft was ignored from the rest of the summer, the stump sprouts would grow so rapidly that they would shade out the scion shoots causing the scion to die from lack of sunlight.
On this first visit to all my grafts, I prune off all stump sprouts if the graft shows any sign of life. Trimming off the stump sprouts takes only a minute but serves push the scion shoots to grow faster (photo at left). This process is generally known as forcing the graft. I view it as directing all the tree's energy into healing over the graft union and growing a vigorous new central leader.
If you look closely at the two buds growing from the scion you will notice that the lower bud seems to be more advanced than the upper bud. This is a very common occurrence. It seems that the bud closest to the the graft union seems to get a greater of the rootstock's energy, resulting in a faster growth rate. At this point, I'll let both buds develop into new shoots because you never know if some creature will destroy one of the tender shoots. In 3 weeks, the new shoots will have developed some woody tissue and I can select the strongest shoot to become my new central leader while pruning off the weaker shoot.
