** Caring for your grafted apple tree **
Did you join one of our grafting workshops this year? Usually within 6 weeks of grafting your tree you should see signs of life in the top bud. You will then know if you have a successful graft or not, but some grafts do take longer than others. If it has not been successful – all is not lost! Let the rootstock grow back and try bud grafting in Summer, or Spring grafting again next year.
* Keep your tree watered *
As with all trees and plants growing in pots, watering is very important, but even more so when two trees have been cut and you are grafting them together. The top section is only the length of a pencil or so and can dry out quickly – so watering the growing medium is vital to help the cambium connection receive plenty of moisture to heal. We also give the potted trees a regular seaweed drench too.
* Pinching out unwanted growth *
Remember to remove any shoots from below the graft union as we want all the energy to be directed into the top shoot and the union – you don’t want the rootstock to grow out. Likewise if you have a side shoot forming on any insurance buds you retained on your scion wood/top wood, then pinch these out like you would on a tomato plant. These will form into very low major branches if left to grow on, creating branches liable to touch the ground when weighed down by fruit – not a very productive or practical place for a branch. Unless of course you are training your tree as an espalier or step over tree and supporting it whilst it grows….
Use bamboo canes to support the growing top shoot that is becoming the main trunk of your fruit tree.
* Blossom on grafted trees *
Ideally you won’t have any blossom on your grafted trees, as we aim to use non- fruiting scion wood by choosing last season’s growth which is generally made up of only vegetative buds. However, if you’ve used a really vigorous branch, or perhaps due to irregular weather at the end of the growing season, or you might have used second year growth by mistake – Don’t fret! We can remove all the blossom on our grafts so it turns into a vegetative bud that becomes the main leader.
If you don’t remove the blooms then it will focus on forming fruit and not growth – obviously not want we want. Removing blossom and waiting for the shoot to form on the newly grafted tree means it takes a little longer to get going but it will catch up.
* First few years *
Likewise you don’t want your tree to focus energy on fruiting until at least year 3. Letting your tree blossom in the first few years, but removing fruitlets at the normal time that apples tend to drop apples known as the ‘June drop’, will help the tree to focus energy on tree growth and health, not reproduction – just yet.