Winter rootstock availability?

[TreeDaddy]

Outstanding! You had much better luck with Schumacher than I did! You might see nuts when they are in the 3 gals. If so, I may hit you up for some next fall.

....For as much as you have contributed to the forum,it will be my pleasure

bill

 

[yoderjac]

Cameron is another one. Lawyer's went out of business. I've only bought from Willamette and Treco

Depending on caliper, rootstock are bundled in 50s or 100s and they do not break bundles. Willamette will ship 50 if the size you want comes in 50s. Treco was a 100 min quantity for either bundle sizes.

Do you think 3/8" is too big? I'd rather have 1/4" for bench grafting but you'll be able to whip and tongue on 3/8" and at least line up well on one side. Cleft might be a little harder. I had my biggest trouble with some 1/2" M111 one year. Clefts made a huge wound I could not put enough pressure on to close up properly.

Thanks! I finally connected. Cameron will sell me 1/4" M111 and ship them in the 1st half of December. After talking to a couple places, I now understand more about the timing. Cameron is in Washington state. They need to harvest the rootstock before the ground freezes hard, so they are the first to have them available. They just pulled their M111 and are in the process of grading them.

So, it looks like I'll end up with 50 of them, more than I need. With the 3 day shipping, the cost will be about $25 more than I would have paid for 25 M111 rootstock locally next spring. Not too bad. I'll have more than I can use. I presume the extras will keep well in the fridge until next spring.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Well, the project is on. My 50 1/4" rootstock came in from Cameron today. I put them in a 5 gal bucket with some damp sawdust and sphagnum. I put them in my cold room. Now I'm waiting on GRIN. I ordered on Sept 5th and the last order status is Nov 6th - new order created by Dawn. I think in previous years folks started to receive scions in early to mid Jan.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[homerj]

I've seen people on various forums post about getting GRIN scions anywhere from mid-January through mid-March. Early requests do not necessarily equate with early shipments.

 

[yoderjac]

I've seen people on various forums post about getting GRIN scions anywhere from mid-January through mid-March. Early requests do not necessarily equate with early shipments.

Yes, I'm not sure what drives the order of shipping. It may be when they collect the last scion from the varieties you ordered. I check back and all mine arrived in the mid Jan timeframe.

 

[yoderjac]

Another forum member wanted some of this rootstock and since I had more than I needed, I was able to get rid of 15 of them. So, I've got 35 left. I'm concerned with the government shutdown when or whether GRIN scions will arrive. They typically come in mid-January but the web site says they are not taking orders during the shutdown. It did not address orders already taken and I made mine back in Sept and Dawn created the order in Nov. I don't know if fulfillment of the orders is done by government workers or by contractors.

I decided that if I was going to complete the indoor winter grafting experiment, I better have a backup. I headed to the farm today and did some maintenance on my existing trees and collected a few scions. My trees are still all young so I didn't get many, but enough to get started. If GRIN falls through, I'll have to find another source.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[greyphase]

Jack

If you need scion I'm sure there are guys on this board who will offer you some. Just let us know what you are looking for.

 

[yoderjac]

Jack

If you need scion I'm sure there are guys on this board who will offer you some. Just let us know what you are looking for.

Thanks. It all depends on GRIN and what happens. In previous years, I didn't see apple scions until mid-Jan so I'm still in wait and see mode, but I am concerned. If I don't either receive mine by mid-Jan or don't see other folks on the forum reporting they got them, I may reach out. My primary criteria is low-maintenance. Here is what I ordered:

PI 588866 Kerr
PI 588870 Dolgo
PI 588909 Centennial
PI 613818 Wickson
PI 589425 Dasyealyx
PI 589768 GMAL 2369
PI 589777 PRI 1918-1
PI 589824 Jonsib Crab
PI 589976 GMAL 2892
PI 213405 Golden Hornet
PI 613941 Coop 41
PI 613990 KAZ 96 06-03

But if GRIN doesn't work out, I'd be open to anything disease resistant. Also, if the govt shutdown is an issue and the open it before too long, scion delivery may just be delayed. It may be an issue for my indoor winter grafting experiment, but as long as they are delivered before normal grafting time, I'll still be able to use them.

Thanks again for the kind offer.

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

THE PROJECT HAS BEGUN:

I grafted 4 trees today. They were all 590198.04 - Coop 11 on M111. The rootstock was smaller than I had worked with in the past. Intentionally so because my history with GRIN scions says they are on the small diameter side. As a result, the amount of root mass on the rootstock was small enough that I could use 1 gal RB2s instead of 3 gal.

I tried out the grafting jig I made. Details are on this thread: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/grafting-jig.10440/

Nothing to see yet other than potted grafts. I plan to leave them in the cold room for a week or so before putting them under lights. I'll update this thread as things progress.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I received some more scions today thanks to NE PA QDM. I got 8 more trees grafted. I previously brought the first few sets of trees I grafted out and put them under lights. No signs yet of anything breaking bud.

 

[yoderjac]

My GRIN order arrived yesterday evening but I did not open it until today. Once again I found many scions to be very small diameter. Many varieties were too small for me to bench graft to my 1/4" rootstock. Other folks report they get good diameter scions from GRIN but most have been small for me each year. I ordered early this year compared to previous years and thought that might help. There were enough in the right size range for me to graft all my rootstock, but I won't get as many different varieties as I had hoped. I still have some more trees in the field that need grafted this spring. I'll use those undersized scions for cleft or bark grafting.

Grafting went pretty well today. I've got 4 rootstock left to graft tomorrow and I'll be done with the grafting part. I've tried three different methods for securing the grafts this year. I did a few with parafilm-M only. I did a bunch with freezer tape. I did the rest with grafting rubbers. I want to see if there is a difference in take for me. Trees grafted today went into 1 gal RB2s and into my cold room for a week to callus.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[SmallChunk]

Mine were all very good size scion. You can still W&T as long as one side matches up....

 

[yoderjac]

Mine were all very good size scion. You can still W&T as long as one side matches up....

My grafting skills are not good enough for that. Sometimes I have failures even when I align both sides. I know one can graft with a single side aligned. it is just a bit risky for me. I would rather have a little more success than more variety.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I finished grafting all my M111 today. I checked the grafts I did back on 1/10 and found some of them have green buds starting to poke through the parafilm. While that is certainly not indicative of success, it is a step in the right direction. While I was watering some of the trees in my cold room, I noticed I have a few apple seedlings left that I can graft. The smaller scions will work fine for them!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Undoubtedly I'll have losses, but I just did an approximation. If everything I grafted would succeed and survive and make it to the field, I should be adding about 36 trees representing 8 new varieties to my existing 23 trees representing 13 varieties. That would give me about 59 trees representing 21 varieties. In time, this should make an impact in my permaculture.

 

[yoderjac]

I found 3 seedlings and 1 B.9 rootstock that had been grafted last year in my cold room. The grafts had failed but a bud under the graft grew and kept the trees alive. I grafted each of them some my counts are up a bit. I was able to add one new variety where the GRIN scions were too small to graft. Since seedlings taper down (unlike the M111 I got that was topped for shipping), I was able to use smaller scions.

The B.9 will never make it to the field, but it will provide a couple scions for next year.

 

[yoderjac]

Finally enough growth to show a pic:

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I started to do some statistics on this year's apple grafting. Here is where I sit so far as to green buds or better growth:

- 19 of 41 total grafts have green.
- The 19 represent 8 of the 14 varieties I attempted.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[buckvelvet]

Grafting already ah? That might happen end of march here indoors....

Nice work Jack.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Jack,

How did you decide on the varieties to graft?

Are you confident they will grow in your region? Clay soils,etc?

bill