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Post by jocelyn on May 28, 2018 8:02:24 GMT -5
I just took the bags off 3 chestnut grafts, and 2 have started The third has died. Now, if they just leaf next spring too, they'll be good to go. This is only partly about food, as the old tree makes small nuts, but it's got only 5 progeny and it's a great old tree. Biggest C. dentata in Canada, so it's survived a lot, grin...even me trying to get scions to take.
While its nuts are about 3.8 grams, its first generation offspring make 6.8 gram nuts, and it won't be long till it's generation 2 offspring makes nuts..........can hardly wait.
What do other folks do, when grafting chestnut? Bag the grafts, don't bag, tape, parafilm? Graft before last frost, expecting leaf out after the frost....?
Any tips?
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Post by mskrieger on May 30, 2018 14:28:47 GMT -5
never grafted nut trees, but maybe khoomeizhi has some insight?
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jun 2, 2018 5:53:25 GMT -5
I've grafted nut trees, but just walnuts and hickories.
Taking the lead from a number of pro chestnut growers in Ohio that we know, our chestnut orchards are all seed-grown from selected parents. The current state of chestnut breeding is that big improvements in yield and vigor are still happening every generation in the multi-species hybrid stock being bred.
I'm a little confused about the grafting you're doing. You talk of the offspring bearing bigger nuts, but then where does the grafting come in?
In general with nut grafting, scion fully wrapped in buddy tape (parafilm), performed just a little after bud break (so a while after last frost hopefully)...the guideline for many species' in situ grafting i've heard and found worked is 'buds as long as a squirrel's ear'. You really want the juices flowing for quick callousing.
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Post by jocelyn on Jun 2, 2018 11:46:24 GMT -5
Here, the trees leaf a month before last frost. I grafted outside May 16, and we've had 4 nights of minus 1 to plus 2 since making those grafts. We are degrees C here. Callousing is long and slow here, due to temperatures, going down to plus 2 again tonight, plus 3 tomorrow night. The reason I want progeny from the old tree itself is that I'm close to the northern limit of chestnut, at a little more than 46 degrees. It's a tough old tree, grin. Some seedlots don't leaf after a bad winter here, and all the Ashdale progeny do leaf. We are at shoot elongation now, small leaves and the internodes elongating. I did a second round May 27, and will do more this week, hope to hit a sweet spot. I'll take your advice and fully wrap the next batch of scions.
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