Lancaster PA Apple Grafting Class

[redbrick]

I know this probably comes a bit late, but I thought I'd pass it on anyway. If you're within driving distance of Lancaster City, you may want to check it out. I'll be one of the "instructors" helping people graft.

15th ANNUAL FRUIT TREE GRAFTING WORKSHOP

The 15th Annual Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop is to be held Saturday, March
17,
from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. at Landis Valley Museum. Participants in this "Make and
Take" workshop will be directed by the Backyard Fruit Growers in grafting
applewood onto rootstock to make two trees. Over 100 varieties of applewood
will be available to choose from. Instructors will help in choosing the
type of apple and the size of the tree for your garden or orchard.
The afternoon will include a talk on grafting and apple varieties, personal
grafting training, instructions on planting and more. The seminar is hosted
by the Heirloom Seed Project of Landis Valley Museum and the Backyard Fruit
Growers who work together to preserve historic varieties of fruit trees in
Pennsylvania German Orchards. The seminar fee is $20.00 and includes two
trees. Additional trees may be grafted for a minimal fee. Pre-registration
is required at 717-569-0401 ext. 204. (Heirloom Seed Project).

Landis Valley Museum is a nationally significant living history village
dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the history & culture
of the Pennsylvania German community from 1740-1940. Landis Valley Museum is
one of 26 historic sites and museums on the Pennsylvania Trail of History,
administered by the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission. For more information on the Pennsylvania
Trail of
History or to request a free 24-page visitor guide, visit
www.phmc.state.pa.us or phone
toll free 1-866-PA TRAIL. Landis Valley is located off Route 272/Oregon
Pike, a
marked exit off both Route 30 and Route 222. For more information about the
museum and the Institute of Pennsylvania Rural Life and Culture, call
569-0401 or visit www.landisvalleymuseum.org.

Things I would recommend bringing along are a small, straight-bladed (no serrations) pocketknife that's "scary sharp", and something to take your new trees home in. An empty square Kittl Litter bucket or five gallon bucket work great, just to keep from bumping the new graft apart.

[Alan]

I wish I could make it to that! If anyone is around they should really check that out as grafting is truly an amazing artform, especially when it comes to fruit trees! Hope you have a lot of fun as an instructor redbrick!

[redbrick]

Thanks for the pitch, Alan! I'm really looking forward to it, but the weather has me nervous! We're supposed to get four to ten inches of snow tomorrow night! Yikes!

[Alan]

Yeah, that could put a damper on things. I'm hoping the snow is over here for the year, only problem is I have a strange feeling it is going to be a very dry summer this year Lots of irrigation I guess. Hope everything works out and you have a great turnout!

[redbrick]

Sorry I didn't post the report sooner! We got about a foot of snow the night before. My forty minute drive home took me three hours. However, the roads were cleared and the seminar did go through, with a rather respectable turnout, all things considered. I helped four people, including my dad, and I collected some unusual scionwood for myself, including Horse, Fall Wine, Keepsake, and Rhode Island Greening. All in all, it was a great experience!

[Alan]

Thats great, i'm glad things went so well for you and you came out with some rare scion wood! That's awesome. Is there any type in particular that you prefer to use for rootstock? I ask because i'm still learning about grafting apples and am looking at a few different types. Glad you made it home safe even if it did take you 3 hours, better safe than sorry.
-alan

[redbrick]

My personal favorite is EMLA 7. It's a nice size, producing a tree about fifteen feet tall, smaller with judicious pruning. The other nice point is the fact that it usually doesn't need to be staked, although I stake mine anyway. I had one tree sail on me, and that was it!

[redbrick]

Oh, yeah! My other favorite is the suckers growing at the base of just about any dwarf apple tree, seeing as they're free! Just make sure the suckers have their own roots when you dig them out.

[Alan]

Free is good and something I too am looking at. I would like not to have to stake, but here on top of this rolling Southern Indiana hill I'm afraid i'll have to, oh well, I've got a couple hundred-thousand tobacco sticks I can use

Soon, soon, soon

-alan

[redbrick]

After two weeks of intently scrutinizing bare twigs for any sign of life (pathetic, ain't it?), just today I noticed buds beginning to break on a few of the trees I grafted. There are a bunch of trees that I THINK are showing green, though it could just be wishfull thinking. I'm certain of the Pomme Grieve and one of the Ditlow's Hard Winter apples, and of the old pear standard from my dad's farm. I've been trying to graft that one for about three years, now.

No clue as to what kind it is, it could even be a chance seedling for all anybody knows. It gives rather small, round pears about the size of tennis balls, with crisp, almost hard flesh and a mild sweetness. Dad always called it a "watermelon pear". You would almost think it was some kind of Asian pear, but the flesh isn't like an Asian, and besides, I highly doubt that there would be an ancient standard Asian pear tree on an old Pennsylvania Dutch farmstead.

As an interesting little aside, the tree is hollow, and used to have a colony of bees living inside it when I was a kid. Now it's dying, and the bees are ten years gone as well. I'm really hope that graft takes since I don't know how many more chances I've got at it!

Still can't believe I grafted nineteen trees! 'Course, they're not all for me, half are for a Backyard Fruit Growers' project to sell Antique Apple trees at an Herbe Faire next spring.

[redbrick]

Okay, add Horse, Fall Wine, Paradise and Rhode Island Greening to the list!

[redbrick]

Keepsake and Smokehouse are showing promise, so that's the whole list for this year, YAY!

[redbrick]

Final update here. I unwrapped the graft unions today, and all but one graft took. Unfortunately, my Horse died! Oh well, there's always next year!

[mbrown]

Andy,

Congrats, it appears you had a number of successes and only one failure. When I did grafting and budding at a nursery, some 40+ years ago, 80% survival was considered successful.

Keep us posted.

Mike