Grafting to Fruit Tree

Just curious if any home gardener has had success in grafting say a hybrid peach, plum, pear twig to a volunteer tree, ie, one that grew from seed. If so, what are the critical points in the process that determine success or failure?

Reply to
Jerry Small
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The most critical thing is to get the diameters correct. Both the graft and the branch you are grafting to must match up almost perfectly. The cambium layers have to be aligned so the sap can pass from branch to graft. There are many different types of grafts to use and can be found on "Google" but I generally use the "whip" graft because it is both strong and it's easy to tape. I use electrical tape to hold the graft in alignment and provide a seal to keep the joint from drying out. Best time to graft is in the early Spring when the sap is starting to flow. All of your mentioned varieties take to grafting quite well. Bill

Reply to
Bill Bolle

The weirdest graft I have done is a pear grafted to a mountain ash. The mountain ash grew wild next to a cedar tree. I cut down the cedar tree and later grafted the pear. It is big enough now to produce a nice crop of pears. The original tree, that provided the scion wood, died before it produced. Less winter injury on the one grafted to mountain ash. You would never guess by just looking but mountain ash and pears are actually related. (they can be hybridized as well) Many years ago I tried to graft things to some choke cherry sprouts. You would think they would be compatible with the other stone fruits. I grafted several kinds of plum, Manchurian apricots and a couple types of tart cherry. Every graft grew and most grew very fast. By fall, 90% were dead and by the next summer, all were dead. I had to give up on that. I have wondered if any of the other wild cherries might allow a graft. We have black cherry and pin cherry. There are none near my yard and I never did try it.

Steve > Just curious if any home gardener has had success in grafting say a

Reply to
Steve

Make sure the variety used for the rootstock is suitable for your soil and zone. Cheers! B.K.

Reply to
Burger King

One critical thing is to consider the plants in question. Grafts usually work only between very closely related species. Examples: Plum, peach, nectarine, apricot, and cherry are all _Prunus_, which is why you can make a tree with a different peach or plum variety on every branch. Pear, while in the same family (Rosaceae--rose family), is in a different subfamily and would probably not be compatible with Prunus. Mountain ash (which someone mentions downthread) is in the same subfamily as pear, so it's not surprising that a pear graft on it would flourish.

M>

Reply to
Monique Reed

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