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A garden is a place where fruit trees are grown that produce tasty and healthy fruits. But many gardeners don’t stop there. For them, the garden is an opportunity to create, creating apple orchards with their own hands, onto which several varieties have been grafted. Such a tree surprises not only with the presence of apples of different colors and shapes, it also bears fruit better, since the conditions for pollination of the apple tree in this case are simply ideal.
But this can only be done by an experienced gardener who has mastered the technique of grafting apple trees and trees of other species in all its subtleties. For those who are just about to carry out the first grafting of a wild apple tree, here is our article.
Why are cultivated apple trees not propagated by sowing seeds?
This method seems to be the simplest - sow apple tree seeds and wait for fruiting. But you will have to wait a long time for it - such apple trees give the first harvest in the 5th year if the tree has been replanted at least 3 times, and in the 15th year if it grows in one place without replanting. It would seem, what’s so special here? We replanted the apple tree 3 times and have been collecting fruits for the 5th year. But seed fruit crops do not inherit parental characteristics. This also applies to apple trees. Therefore, we will raise a “pig in a poke.”You can spend a long time and get a harvest of almost inedible apples, although very beautiful ones. There are exceptions. It was they who gave birth to that group of old and very good folk varieties of apple trees, which are now being planted less and less, yielding to the pressure of breeding innovations. The advantages of such apple trees include durability and excellent adaptability to growing conditions, and the disadvantages are their large height, which is inconvenient for care and harvesting, and the late date of fruiting. Therefore, grafting an apple tree is the shortest path to the goal with a guaranteed result.
How to graft an apple tree into a wild one? Over time, this question arises in every gardener.
Why are vaccinations given?
- The trees are old, I want to graft them with new, modern varieties of apple trees.
- There is a desire to create a tree-orchard on which several different varieties of apples coexist peacefully.
- The small size of the plot does not allow planting all the desired varieties of apple trees, so they are grafted onto one rootstock.
- I would like to improve the wild apple tree that has grown on the site without permission.
- Support a sick apple tree with a large hollow or one damaged by hares by grafting a bridge.
- It is impossible to get a seedling of the required apple tree variety, and there are only cuttings for grafting.
- There is no certainty that the selected apple tree variety will be sufficiently winter-hardy in this area, but you want to try its apples, so they graft into the crown of a growing winter-hardy apple tree.
- I would like to get a dwarf apple tree or propagate a columnar variety of apple tree.
You can find many other reasons that require mastering the technology of such a not very simple, but very interesting activity as grafting an apple tree. There are practically no seasonal restrictions for its implementation.But the method of grafting a wild apple tree will be different in each season.
Before talking about the technique of grafting an apple tree, you need to understand what a rootstock and scion are, where they come from and what criteria they must meet.
A little about scion and rootstock
When grafting an apple tree, one part of the tree is transferred to another so that they grow together to form a whole plant. The part of the apple tree that is transferred is called the scion, and the part that is grafted onto is called the rootstock.
The scion is buds or cuttings of selected varieties of apple trees. Cuttings can be prepared in your own garden, bought at a garden fair, ordered by mail from amateur gardeners, or simply taken from a neighbor. With a kidney it’s more complicated. It cannot dry out, which means it cannot be stored. The only way to take an apple bud is from your own or a neighboring garden. For cuttings to be of high quality, two points are important: the time of their preparation and proper storage before grafting. The timing for harvesting apple tree cuttings is as follows:
- the period from the end of leaf fall to the onset of severe frosts is above 10 degrees. Such cuttings of apple trees are used for grafting in winter and spring;
- the time after the end of severe frosts - the end of winter or the beginning of spring, the buds should not yet swell. They are used in the same way as in the first case;
- For summer grafting, apple tree cuttings are prepared immediately before them.
We prepare apple tree cuttings correctly:
- They are harvested only from young trees that are already producing fruits, the varietal qualities of which are beyond doubt.
- Branches are cut from the part of the crown of the apple tree facing south; its middle tier is suitable.
- One-year or, in extreme cases, two-year-old wood, which must be fully matured, is suitable for grafting.
- The selected apple tree branches should be free of frost damage, sunburn and other damage.
- The length of the cutting is from 30 to 50 cm, the thickness is about 8 mm, about the size of a pencil.
Apple tree cuttings are stored in a room with a temperature of about 0 degrees. They should be buried in moist, but not wet sand. The humidity of the sand must be maintained at the same level. You can store them outside by covering them with sawdust or snow. If you wrap them in a soft, damp cloth and put them in the refrigerator, they will also keep well.
Each cutting should have a tag with the name of the apple tree variety.
Now about rootstocks for grafting. The fate of the future tree directly depends on their correct choice.
The selection criteria are as follows:
- well developed root system;
- frost resistance;
- good adaptation to growing conditions;
- maximum compatibility with the selected scion.
What rootstocks do gardeners usually choose for grafting? You can buy a rootstock at a nursery and grow it yourself, but the easiest way is to graft an apple tree onto a wild plant. You can take it in the forest or near the road, where wild apple trees grow most often. A young 1-2 year old seedling is suitable, but you can graft an apple tree onto an adult tree. In this case, it is advisable to graft several varieties and get a garden tree. Usually this procedure is performed in stages over 2-3 years.
When grafting a columnar apple tree onto a wild plant, only a one-year-old seedling is selected as a rootstock; the grafting is done close to the root collar and do not forget to correctly form the crown of the grafted seedling in the future.
How to grow wild apple trees for grafting
The easiest way is to sow the seeds of an apple tree that has demonstrated its frost resistance. You can take them from your neighbors or from your own garden. The classic is the Antonovka apple tree variety, but other varieties that are not prone to frost in frosty winters are also suitable. The algorithm for growing a wild apple tree seedling is as follows.
- Seed stratification. It can be natural if they are sown on a seedling bed immediately after picking apples, and artificial - in a box with wet sand and the addition of activated carbon, which is placed in the refrigerator for 2-3 months. In this case, it is convenient to observe the stratification process and, if necessary, adjust the conditions for keeping the seeds. Stratification in the refrigerator begins in mid-January.
Before stratification, the seeds are washed to remove the germination inhibitor, a substance located on their surface. - Hatched apple tree seeds are sown on the beds, followed by mandatory picking in the cotyledon leaf phase. The central root is pinched so that the root system of the apple tree seedling is fibrous. You can plant them in separate pots with a volume of at least 0.5 liters, and then grow them to grafting in a larger pot. We will get a seedling with a closed root system. The soil for growing consists of garden soil, aged peat and sand in equal parts. Add a glass of wood ash to a bucket of the mixture and tbsp. a spoonful of superphosphate and potassium sulfate.
- During the growing season, a young apple tree will need several waterings and 2 feedings with mullein infusion or ammonium nitrate.
With good care, we will get a one-year developed apple tree seedling, which is time to graft.
What is needed for vaccinations
First of all, you will need a grafting and copulating knife. The second has a curved blade. The tool must be very sharp. It is better to entrust its sharpening to a specialist who will do this using special equipment. If it is not possible to purchase such a knife, you can get by with an ordinary, but well-sharpened knife.
Required tools:
- Secateurs.
- Hacksaw saw.
- Garden var or oil paint.
- Wrapping material: soft polyethylene film tape, insulating tape, paper twine.
For those who will be vaccinated for the first time in their lives, it will greatly facilitate this process.
What types of vaccinations are there?
According to the timing, they are divided into winter, spring and summer. Some gardeners vaccinate at the beginning of autumn, but the survival rate in this case is low.
According to the method of administration, the following vaccinations are distinguished:
- in the butt;
- simple and improved copulation;
- for the bark;
- into a cut made in the scion trunk;
- budding.
The last vaccination is performed in the second half of summer with the beginning of the summer sap flow period. The first three can be performed both in spring and winter in the room - the so-called desktop grafting. The rootstocks for it are stored in the basement so that the roots do not dry out, ideally if they are grown in pots. Vaccination is performed indoors, using a method convenient for you.Grafted seedlings are stored in a cold basement until planting, placing the root system in a box with damp steamed sawdust or sphagnum moss.
But spring vaccinations work best. About, how to graft an apple tree to the wild in the spring, the video tells:
We'll tell you how to plant a wild apple tree in the spring step by step using the split method.
This method is suitable for vaccinating wild animals of any age. Both the scion and rootstock, which have the same thickness, and the wildwood, whose diameter is larger than the grafted cuttings, grow together well. In this case, you will need two of them.
- We take out and select the cuttings.
- We prepare the rootstock - we cut down part of the trunk or branch, if it is a skeletal branch, then there should be about 20 cm to its base, the wild one is cut down at a height of about 20 cm from the ground, a thick trunk depending on the specific situation. We further clean the cut with a knife. Experienced gardeners use a hacksaw for cutting - it gives a smoother cut.
- If the thickness of the cutting and the grafted branch are the same, one split is made, if the rootstock is much thicker, one split is made, into which 2 cuttings or a cross-shaped split is inserted for 4 cuttings.
- A thin branch is split with a knife to a depth equal to 3 to 4 times its diameter; in thick branches, the splitting point is first cut with a knife, inserted there and hit with a hammer until a gap of the required depth is obtained; At the same time, a wooden wedge or a screwdriver is inserted into the gap to make it more convenient to insert the cuttings.
- On the selected cutting we make the top cut, leaving 3 to 5 buds.
- We sharpen the bottom with a wedge, the length of the cut part is 3-4 times the diameter of the cutting.
The cut is carried out in one movement, without crushing the wood. Do not touch the cuts with your hands.If you can’t work quickly or several cuttings are being prepared at once, they need to be placed in a glass of water in which we dissolve a teaspoon of honey. - We insert the wedge part of the cutting into the cut so that 1-2 mm of the cut part protrudes outward; for cuttings that match in diameter, the bark of the scion and rootstock should be in contact; in other cases, we combine the cambium tissues.
- When all the cuttings are inserted, we take out a wooden wedge or a screwdriver and tie the grafting for a tighter fit; For this purpose, use film, electrical tape or twine; The material needs to be slightly stretched, the electrical tape is wrapped with a sticky layer on the outside. Experienced gardeners advise using ribbons cut from a polyvinyl chloride tablecloth; they have better elasticity.
- We cover all open areas, including the upper sections of the cuttings, with garden varnish.
- To reduce the evaporation of moisture, put a cellophane or, preferably, a paper bag over the graft and secure it, leaving a small gap.
Cleft grafting is done in early spring before the buds on the trees swell. Such vaccinations can also be done at the end of winter, if severe frosts are not expected.
It happens that the spring grafting of an apple tree was not successful. In order not to waste precious time, it can be repeated in the summer using the eye budding method.
The video will tell you how to properly graft an apple tree using the budding method:
And in conclusion, general tips to help avoid vaccination failures:
- all operations for preparing the scion are done quickly; ideally, the finished cutting should not be exposed to the open air for more than 10 seconds;
- instruments and hands must be clean, or preferably sterile;
- if several trees are grafted, after each grafting the instrument is sterilized by wiping with alcohol.
Grafting a wild apple tree is a fascinating activity. Having mastered it, you can significantly expand the range of varieties without changing the area of plantings.
