Post by MikeH on Jul 27, 2013 21:21:23 GMT -5
Joyce and I just finished t-bud grafting Golden Russet, Yellow Transparent, Gala, Cox's Orange Pippin, Gravenstein, Mutsu, Honey Crisp and Hidden Rose. We went to a friend's small pick-your-own and cut budwood. What's a bit different about what we did is that all the grafts are on one rootstock. Joyce's rootstock was long enough to get all nine on it while I had to use two - one with five and one with four. We did it this way because we don't have enough rootstock to graft 2 of each. I'm hoping to get good growth next year on each which will allow me to t-bud on as many rootstock as I have available.
This was our first attempt at t-budding but conditions were right - the leaves were "snapping" off the wood and the bark was slipping easily. T-budding has a high success rate because there is so much cambium contact. The inner pith is slipped away from the cambium layer on the graft material. The host wood has a "T" cut into it and the bark is carefully pried loose from the cambium so that the graft material can be inserted. you just have to be careful when handling the graft material not to get fingers on the cambium. The petiole is a convenient way of handling the graft material without touching the cambium.
We were finished in an hour so we don't have a future at this point grafting commercially, not that we'd want to. We'll know in a few weeks if the grafts have taken when the petioles dry up and drop off. But the final confirmation will be bud break in the spring.
Had we purchased these trees, we would have spent upwards of $250 plus shipping and tax. Instead, we spent $5.04 which was the cost of the original rootstock which I have since propagated. The $.04 represents an hour each of our time.
This was our first attempt at t-budding but conditions were right - the leaves were "snapping" off the wood and the bark was slipping easily. T-budding has a high success rate because there is so much cambium contact. The inner pith is slipped away from the cambium layer on the graft material. The host wood has a "T" cut into it and the bark is carefully pried loose from the cambium so that the graft material can be inserted. you just have to be careful when handling the graft material not to get fingers on the cambium. The petiole is a convenient way of handling the graft material without touching the cambium.
We were finished in an hour so we don't have a future at this point grafting commercially, not that we'd want to. We'll know in a few weeks if the grafts have taken when the petioles dry up and drop off. But the final confirmation will be bud break in the spring.
Had we purchased these trees, we would have spent upwards of $250 plus shipping and tax. Instead, we spent $5.04 which was the cost of the original rootstock which I have since propagated. The $.04 represents an hour each of our time.
