Wednesday 18 March 2015

Inarching A Damaged Apple Tree

They say you learn more through your mistakes than your successes, if that's true then I'm learning a lot. One important thing I learnt last year was not to mulch young apple trees with straw, although it stopped the weeds it also provided a perfect little haven for mice to chew at the bark of some of my trees.
 I was gutted when I spotted this a month or so ago, a few trees had been completely ringed by the little sods. But the damage was done so I just had to think how to get over it and prevent it in future. I will be adding tree guards to all of these even though they're protected by a rabbit fence, hopefully that'll stop it happening again. 

The trees in question happen to be part of my row of cordons, and they were growing nicely. It would be a shame to loose any, but the damage extends down to ground level, not enough bark left to do a bridge graft like I have done on a previously damaged tree in the orchard. 
I decided to try some inarching, this is where I basically graft a new rootstock on to the tree whilst it's still insitu and this should keep the sap flowing next year. The process is quite simple but in practice it's fiddly, although I have a few trees to do to so I should get better at it!
New rootstock added along side the old one

The end of the new rootstock cut into a wedge shape. It should go to a point without a flat bit shown on the picture.
The side against the tree is cut slightly longer to give a larger area for cambium contact.

The wedge of the new rootstock being inserted in to the scion of the old tree. This should hopefully keep it alive.  It's essential to make sure that the cambium layers are touching (the layer just under the bark) as this is where the sap flows.
Different tree but showing the grafting tape holding it all tight.
I need to do this to about 8 trees in a row of thirty, luckily I have a lot of rootstocks to use as I haven't started this years grafting yet. They seem to have only gone for some trees and not others, they didn't touch my nursery of over 150 trees luckily - otherwise I might be weeping! My plan is to keep these trees alive for another season and then take some scion wood from them so I don;t loose that variety and maybe replace the trees when I have new ones grown depending on how they do. 

The more grafting I do and the more I practice it, the bigger asset having this skill becomes. If your a keen gardener then I urge you to try it. I might do a little video on this if anyone is interested? 

Anyone else been grafting this year yet?

19 comments:

  1. Kev, you're a man with many talents! Grafting is one of the many things we want to get our hands on...I think it is fascinating. The farthest we got to was to air-layer a climbing rose...so, we're really looking forward to learn from you. Just reading what you've been working on in your homestead is truly inspiring:) Wishing you a nice day.

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    1. Thanks Annie, I haven't done any air layering yet although I have plans to do it with a friends mulberry bush this year. Just have a go at grafting as it's a long term project -the sooner you start the better!

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  2. Never heard of that, very interesting.

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    1. Thanks! It's another useful skill to have.

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  3. New one on me. I'm impressed Kev, hope you keep us informed on how it progresses

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    1. I will do Gill, hopefully they should work.

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  4. I'm one who would agree with your first statement (from personal experience, of course :), but I don't think this mistake was on your part! What bad mousies you have! I never knew they could do that! How frustrating for you, but I think that's quite the save. At least I hope it's a save and I think definitely worth the effort. I've never done any grafting before but will have to remember this.

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    1. I never even knew mice could do this (although it could be rats but I'd rather not think about that). Hopefully it should save the trees, the more grafting I do the more useful skill it becomes!

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  5. You learn something new every day!
    Kev, e-mail me your address please and state which seeds you want, so I can get them to you soon for sowing.

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    1. Will do sandie, I keep forgetting, my memory is terrible!

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  6. Sounds like you need some 5 gallon bucket mouse traps around the place.
    http://fivegallonideas.com/bucket-mouse-trap/

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    1. I do need to make some of these up. I need a save way of trapping them around the children and this might fit the bill.

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  7. It's the rabbits that always get my trees around here. I hate em. Neat way of grafting. Could you use a non-producing variety for the root stock?

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    1. Rabbits do in the orchard but the veg garden is rabbit proof - no way could I grow anything otherwise! The rootstock I'm using is a MM106 which is only used as the rootstocks for other trees to be grafted onto. Any tree of the same type will work I think, so long as it's got some roots on. Although if you want to get a cutting to root you can graft it in like this and have the other end in the ground - that's called suckling!

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  8. Didn't know mice could ring bark trees Kev. I know they often get ringbarked when people strim the grass around them.

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    1. No strimmers here last year! And no rabbits can get in so I'm guessing it's them although like I said it could be rats!

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  9. wow, just wow, I don't even know where to start with trees, but I'd better start learning or this food forest is going to be expensive! Keep sharing, you're a great resource of hands-on experience.

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    1. Planting and caring for trees are one of the main things I love about having a patch of land, there's so many things you can do with them it's incredible. Glad you like the post.

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  10. Armchair gardening at the moment ..two sites you may know of ? may find interesting on a wet day
    http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/APPLE1.HTML
    and google has a pdf copy of an old Victorian grafting book that is a fun read has great illustrations even if you may not wish to copy their designs
    http://books.google.com/books?id=VQJFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=The+art+of+Grafting+and+Budding+baltet&source=bl&ots=6ZmrcUJl23&sig=nohs03b0Lxts0l4uH2vp-O6p6To&hl=en&ei=clrKSuW0J5K2swOUo8iiBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

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