I might have been able to start grafting earlier, but last week's
frost caused me to delay carving scions until I could see how my trees recover from the frost burn. Turns out, my bigger trees (bark grafting size) have grown out of the frost burn quickly, pushing out new leaves and numerous catkins. The bark slipped nicely allowing for the easy insertion of a scion (photo at right). Today's cool weather was ideal for grafting but with 35 mph winds, photographing my grafting process was not possible. Over the next week, I'll be grafting every day so I'll be sure to capture my methods on film to share on this blog.
None of my smaller trees (3-flap size) were ready to graft today. These were the trees most seriously affected by last week's frost. The photo at left shows a typical seedling tree. New green buds are only now starting to emerge. When I apply a 3-flap graft to this sized tree, I like to see a little more new growth on the stock tree before placing a scion.
Let's take a closer look at the terminal buds on seedling tree pictured above. In the photo at right, you can see a frost-killed bud at the apex of the shoot. Below the dead bud, new buds have begun to swell and enlarge. If we get a few more days of warm sunshine, this tree should grow rapidly and be ready to accept a scion.
