Happy new year. Grafting if lots of fun to play with even when it goes wrong. I have played around with different knives and still have trouble getting the cuts right I have even tried using utility knives as they are really sharp, some work better then others but I have never had consistent results. I like your views on bud grafting which I will try.
I'd like to try a grafting tool like yours too, but I don't know if I can really justify buying one since I don't really need to do a lot of grafting ever.
I have not done a lot of grafting either, but the two types I have had the most reliability with are splice grafts and cleft grafts, but those both require close to the same size scion and branches. I had tried a few whip and tongue grafts, but found that one difficult without having a sharper knife. I'm interested in doing more on the existing apple trees I have, similar to what are you doing with these trees. I'll have to try bud grafting.
I`m with you on the Wolf River variety.......there's lots of better apples out there. But I'll never cut it down or graft it over because it's quite resistant to apple maggot & codling moth damage. (The codling moths go for them, but the the infected apples don't drop early & the apples are still usable. ) Plus they're dual purpose & they're huge even if the tree isn't pruned or thinned. I have a standard Wolf River that's taken decades of neglect & it still produces decent fruit. So it's a keeper, even though most years, they're just for the cows. It's my "just in case" tree for when I can't care for my orchard & don't have "better" apples.
Nice grafts! That's not bad at all. I tried and all failed. 100% negative result. Not trying that again on my good trees. Might try again on the mealy one though ;) no good for eating but good guineapig. I also planted some trees from seed 2 years ago to be able to practice on them. They will be ready in a few years. Until then I have enough time to figure out what actually went wrong the last time. They just dried out, no new growth. I'd take the cider apple ;) ice cold young cider mixed with sparkling water mmmh.
If you want to try again Torp, I'd say bud grafting is the most foolproof graft to make. Stephen Hayes has at least one really good video of doing it on his channel. You have to have a source for fresh bud wood though, which usually means a friend with the right variety.
Happy New Year and nice to see a new video from you! 👍🏻 Your top working/frameworking results are not terribly different from my own. I watched your video on grafting goo some time ago, from that I found Stephen Hayes and Steven Edholm and went down the grafting rabbit hole hard. Watching those guys videos gave me enough confidence to bench graft over 60 apples last year, and to attempt topworking or frameworking 4 large established trees here. Overall my results on the big trees mirrors yours rather closely. I do find bench grafting using bought rootstock much more consistently successful than bark grafting outside big old trees. I’ve never tried budding. This was the first year I ever attempted whip and tongue grafts, they are intimidating and challenging but are excellent when you get them down. I’ve been casually messing around with grafting for at least 10 years, but this past year was the first time I felt truly confident enough to really do grafts in a major way. Wolf River is the premier apple butter variety according to generations of my Fathers family. It’s the only apple they will use for apple butter. Not a choice variety for fresh eating though! I’d be happy to trade scionwood sometime!
He's got a huge number of great apple videos. The one thing I'd say about him, he is a bit of a English apple chauvinist, and is really dismissive of most North American apple varieties (or most modern apple varieties) and he also is a big fan of the saddle graft which I found REALLY hard to make, but the informational content of his grafting videos is really high.
Checked my own apple grafts earlier today on my Frankentree and found mixed results, some cleft grafts took, more double cleft grafts took (guess I'm just doubling the odds) and all my bud grafts took!
I have never grafted. I found this video very informative.
Happy new year. Grafting if lots of fun to play with even when it goes wrong. I have played around with different knives and still have trouble getting the cuts right I have even tried using utility knives as they are really sharp, some work better then others but I have never had consistent results. I like your views on bud grafting which I will try.
I'd like to try a grafting tool like yours too, but I don't know if I can really justify buying one since I don't really need to do a lot of grafting ever.
I have not done a lot of grafting either, but the two types I have had the most reliability with are splice grafts and cleft grafts, but those both require close to the same size scion and branches. I had tried a few whip and tongue grafts, but found that one difficult without having a sharper knife.
I'm interested in doing more on the existing apple trees I have, similar to what are you doing with these trees. I'll have to try bud grafting.
I have to say, the bud graft is by far the easiest graft to accomplish, but the trick is getting fresh bud wood at the right time.
I`m with you on the Wolf River variety.......there's lots of better apples out there.
But I'll never cut it down or graft it over because it's quite resistant to apple maggot & codling moth damage. (The codling moths go for them, but the the infected apples don't drop early & the apples are still usable. ) Plus they're dual purpose & they're huge even if the tree isn't pruned or thinned.
I have a standard Wolf River that's taken decades of neglect & it still produces decent fruit. So it's a keeper, even though most years, they're just for the cows.
It's my "just in case" tree for when I can't care for my orchard & don't have "better" apples.
Nice grafts! That's not bad at all.
I tried and all failed. 100% negative result. Not trying that again on my good trees. Might try again on the mealy one though ;) no good for eating but good guineapig.
I also planted some trees from seed 2 years ago to be able to practice on them. They will be ready in a few years. Until then I have enough time to figure out what actually went wrong the last time. They just dried out, no new growth.
I'd take the cider apple ;) ice cold young cider mixed with sparkling water mmmh.
If you want to try again Torp, I'd say bud grafting is the most foolproof graft to make. Stephen Hayes has at least one really good video of doing it on his channel. You have to have a source for fresh bud wood though, which usually means a friend with the right variety.
Happy New Year and nice to see a new video from you! 👍🏻
Your top working/frameworking results are not terribly different from my own. I watched your video on grafting goo some time ago, from that I found Stephen Hayes and Steven Edholm and went down the grafting rabbit hole hard. Watching those guys videos gave me enough confidence to bench graft over 60 apples last year, and to attempt topworking or frameworking 4 large established trees here. Overall my results on the big trees mirrors yours rather closely. I do find bench grafting using bought rootstock much more consistently successful than bark grafting outside big old trees. I’ve never tried budding. This was the first year I ever attempted whip and tongue grafts, they are intimidating and challenging but are excellent when you get them down. I’ve been casually messing around with grafting for at least 10 years, but this past year was the first time I felt truly confident enough to really do grafts in a major way.
Wolf River is the premier apple butter variety according to generations of my Fathers family. It’s the only apple they will use for apple butter. Not a choice variety for fresh eating though!
I’d be happy to trade scionwood sometime!
We should definitely trade. I'll be in touch.
Thanks Tim! Very helpful! As you know, I'm already subed to Steven, but I'm heading over to Stephen's channel now.
He's got a huge number of great apple videos. The one thing I'd say about him, he is a bit of a English apple chauvinist, and is really dismissive of most North American apple varieties (or most modern apple varieties) and he also is a big fan of the saddle graft which I found REALLY hard to make, but the informational content of his grafting videos is really high.
I don't think he's done a merge graft on his channel though. You've got the only merge graft video I've seen on YT.
@@oxbowfarm5803 Woohoo! I are special!
Checked my own apple grafts earlier today on my Frankentree and found mixed results, some cleft grafts took, more double cleft grafts took (guess I'm just doubling the odds) and all my bud grafts took!
I have not tried a cleft graft. It seems like it would be a stronger graft in general than the bark graft, but with less cambial contact.