What did you do in the garden today?

[jerryse]

Cut a number of scions from the two pear trees.put in lg bag with shaving and then watered, fingers crossed.

just need to order the root stock.

Just got my root stock order from Raintree yesterday . Do you have wild flowering pear trees in your area . Many people are using these as root stock for pear . You can also use Hawthorn .
I will post some pictures of this later .

 

[jerryse]

Some finished root grafts . Electric taped wound sticky side up

Callery Flowering pear root sucker .

Scion and root ready to graft .

Inserted and ready to roll rubber band over graft union .

Rubber band over graft . Pressure to hold until healed .


These pics loaded kind of random . This is some root grafting I did 3-31-16 . These are now wrapped in damp newspaper and stored in a plastic bag . Held at room temp to speed healing for about 2 weeks . When done on in ground trees wait for active growth . Leaves about pea sized . This insures the tree is actively growing so it can heal before the scion dies . Apples can often be planted after bench grafting without a healing time . Only if weather is warm enough . I sometimes use parafilm to keep the graft from drying out . Since these are in a moist enviroment no tape or Parafilm really needed . I used cleft grafting method .

 

[AlHawk]

These pics loaded kind of random . This is some root grafting I did 3-31-16 . These are now wrapped in damp newspaper and stored in a plastic bag . Held at room temp to speed healing for about 2 weeks . When done on in ground trees wait for active growth . Leaves about pea sized . This insures the tree is actively growing so it can heal before the scion dies . Apples can often be planted after bench grafting without a healing time . Only if weather is warm enough . I sometimes use parafilm to keep the graft from drying out . Since these are in a moist enviroment no tape or Parafilm really needed . I used cleft grafting method .

This is VERY interesting to me. I've never tried it. Looks like a good job. Good Luck with them.

 

[lazy gardener]

Some finished root grafts . Electric taped wound sticky side up

Callery Flowering pear root sucker .

Scion and root ready to graft .

Inserted and ready to roll rubber band over graft union .

Rubber band over graft . Pressure to hold until healed .


These pics loaded kind of random . This is some root grafting I did 3-31-16 . These are now wrapped in damp newspaper and stored in a plastic bag . Held at room temp to speed healing for about 2 weeks . When done on in ground trees wait for active growth . Leaves about pea sized . This insures the tree is actively growing so it can heal before the scion dies . Apples can often be planted after bench grafting without a healing time . Only if weather is warm enough . I sometimes use parafilm to keep the graft from drying out . Since these are in a moist enviroment no tape or Parafilm really needed . I used cleft grafting method .

I have a seedling pear that was planted last fall. The trunk is about the diameter of a pencil. buds on trees in my area are swelling now, but have not yet broken. I'd like to graft this pear with scion from pear from some friends. I have options of Seckel, perhaps Bartlet, and one other common one that I'm not sure of the variety. I've never grafted before, but it's on my bucket list. If I cut scion wood this weekend, would that be an appropriate time? If I'm reading your post correctly, the correct time to graft would be after the buds on the root stock have produced pea sized leaves. So... I should cut my scion wood now, and hold it in fridge till then? Is it possible to graft more than one variety to the root stock at this size, or should I just do a single variety to get it going, then graft in a branch of an other variety next year? (Especially given that I've never grafted before) How close to ground should I cut the root stock? Should I make it pretty high, so that if my union doesn't take, I can cut lower and try it again???

 

[jerryse]

I have a seedling pear that was planted last fall. The trunk is about the diameter of a pencil. buds on trees in my area are swelling now, but have not yet broken. I'd like to graft this pear with scion from pear from some friends. I have options of Seckel, perhaps Bartlet, and one other common one that I'm not sure of the variety. I've never grafted before, but it's on my bucket list. If I cut scion wood this weekend, would that be an appropriate time? If I'm reading your post correctly, the correct time to graft would be after the buds on the root stock have produced pea sized leaves. So... I should cut my scion wood now, and hold it in fridge till then? Is it possible to graft more than one variety to the root stock at this size, or should I just do a single variety to get it going, then graft in a branch of an other variety next year? (Especially given that I've never grafted before) How close to ground should I cut the root stock? Should I make it pretty high, so that if my union doesn't take, I can cut lower and try it again???

Yes collect your scion wood and wrap some damp paper towel around it .Put in a zip lock bag in the fridge . I would only use 1 scion on that size . You can add another variety later as the tree grows . You can graft as high or as low as you like . In California and other warm states you can get by grafting early as the buds are swelling or before .They warm up fast there . In the north we get a lot of up and down temps which slows healing . Pear is fairly easy . Check out some videos on grafting on You Tube . Check out this link
http://www.growingfruit.org/t/grafting-for-complete-beginners/1766/24

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks. I'll see about getting some scions this weekend. Any recommendations? Are you familiar with either of the 2 varieties I mentioned?

 

[Bugseye]

Spring has taken off like a rocket! And I've missed a lot of the goings-on here, but am catching up. My starts are germinating, and I have more things to start. I've put a bunch of cool weather stuff into the garden, but no sprouts yet. Just waiting. Raspberries mostly pruned, and boy, the ticks are running wild again this year.

 

[GardenNut]

Planted various cool season veggies yesterday, and finally got the chicken run put up around my new coop! With the coop in there it's not as big as I'd like. It's raining here again today, so my newly-planted seeds are getting a good watering!

 

[chickadoodles]

That's great GardenNut. I bet the chickens are loving their new run.

My carrots and cuc's sprouted!

 

[chickadoodles]

Found some.