For the Love of Grafting

I started grafting apple trees just 4 years ago, when I retired.  Not knowing anyone who knew how to graft I relied on YouTube videos to learn the art. My first year I had over 50% of my grafts "take" and was pleased with the results. Those first trees are growing strongly in the Home Orchard, the Back40 Orchard, the Locust Field Orchard and Mam & Pap's Orchard. A few of them set fruit last year and I enjoyed the taste of the old heirloom varieties Myers Royal Limbertwig, Virginia Beauty, Aunt Rachel and Keener's Seedling. Right from the start I knew I didn't want to grow apples varieties that I could buy at the store or at the local orchards. It was the heirloom varieties that "peaked" my interest. Through internet searches I found orchards that sold scion wood of these old varieties. Big Horse Creek Farm, Hocking Hills Orchards, Maple Valley Orchards and John Bunker's Fedco website all provided scion for my grafting adventures. I also found on Facebook the North American Scion Exchange page and the NAFEX (North American Fruit Explorers) page where like minded people were trading scion freely. I now have over 200 trees of over 100 varieties "in the ground" and I'm seriously running out of prime places to plant here on my 66 acres. So now I'm entering into my next "phase" of grafting, selling trees in an attempt to keep these heirloom varieties alive. I took a dozen trees that I had wintered over to the Uniontown "animal swap" this spring and sold out in minutes. I also sold a few "deer apple" trees on Craiglist and other local internet sale sites. So hopefully I'll be able to keep enjoying this hobby that I love and introduce people to the taste of these old apple varieties that have survived for hundreds of years.