Orchard Trees Mulched

I've managed to put some muck around the base of my trees this week. Some people don't like to do this too much as it can encourage leafy growth at the expense of fruit, but while the trees are young and establishing I think it's a good thing.  I might add a final mulch of wood chip on top to help keep the weeds at bay around the base of the tree.

Half a barrow of muck a tree

How the bridge graft I did in 3013 looks now

I also looked at the bridge graft I did a couple of years ago when I had a tree ringed barked by rabbits. The tree is still growing well and both of my "bridges" are alive and looking healthy, they've gotten thicker and grown with the tree and the wounds have callused over nicely. Hopefully as the tree grows it will engulf this and in a few years time you won't be able to tell. 

Does anyone else mulch their fruit trees with well rotted muck? Do you think it makes any difference?

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?

Orchard Topped

When we moved here I was a little anxious about meeting the one next door neighbour. He'd rented the fields we'd brought for the last 20 years so I was worried about what he'd think with how I was going to run the place.

 Luckily we hit it off straight away and have become good friends. I think he's glad not to have the responsibility so much now (he looks after the land from the "big house" next door as well). There's a farm gate between his garden and my field and many a good tail has been told over it, like generations of country folk before us.

The tree I bridge grafted is doing fine

 He does seem to like the orchard I've planted down below our garden (and quite near to his) and last week he offered to top it for me to keep it looking tidy and to let him try out his topper on his tractor. I wasn't going to say no. All I need to do now is strim around the trees.

Having good neighbours can really make or break the place that you call home (especially ones that don't moan at me for working late!).

Saving A Rabbit Damaged Tree

Or at least trying to...

Rabbit Damage

 Walking around my trees the other day I could see that one had been badly damaged by rabbits (or girdled the term is). They had chewed the bark above the rabbit guard and only a tiny strip on the back remains.
As this tree has only been in a year I could easily replace it, but that's a years growth wasted and the cost of a new tree, so I decided to try and repair it.

Make cuts below and above the damage into the cambium layer

The way the tree had been damaged meant that the sap couldn't flow up the tree anymore but I'd read about using "bridge grafts" to solve this problem -I'd just never tried it. Still nothing ventured...
I first took a couple of small branches from the same tree of last years growth. This was soft and flexible. I then cut a long cut on both ends and a small one on the other sides to make a wedge shape.

I bridge the damage using some small branches from last years growth

In the tree itself I made an incision below the damage and one above. These cuts aren't too deep but expose the cambium layer just below the bark. I then inserted the two "bridges" into these cuts. The books said I could just use one for a tree this size but I decided to go with two in case one didn't work. They are cut slightly long so they have to be bent into position helping to maintain cambium contact once the tape is applied.

The graft taped up, only time will tell to see if I did any good.

I then taped it all up and applied grafting wax to make sure it was sealed. And before I finished I added another rabbit guard on top of the first to help to keep the little buggers away.
I'm not sure whether this will work or not but it was interesting to try. Before I started to learn about grafting I would have assumed there wasn't anything I could do to keep this tree alive. It's nice to learn through doing by using the knowledge I've gained through books - because if you don't ever do what you've read about you haven't really learnt anything! .