Miscellaneous Ramblings from the Past Couple of Weeks

I've been busy grafting apple & pear trees for the past couple of weeks so as the rain comes down today I thought I'd catch up with some pics.

Finishing up a bench graft. I grafted 51 varieties of apples and 6 varieties of pears onto about 110 rootstocks.



I use the bark grafting technique to graft to larger limbs of established trees.  You can only do this grafting when the sap is starting to flow and the bark will "slip" away from the wood of the tree. I make a downward cut and slowly peel the bark back.

 

 

 

I then slip a piece of scion between the bark and the wood of the tree.

 

I coat the graft with wax from a toilet bowl gasket to keep the graft from drying out. It works just as well as the grafting wax you can buy and is much cheaper.

 

 

 

I then wrap it tightly with garden tape to keep pressure on the graft.

 

 

Happenings in the Back40 include a Bluebird box with 5 eggs,

 

 and a box with a Chickadee nest well underway

It won't be long before the apple blossoms are open.

The rain has stopped for now so I'm going out to enjoy Spring.