New grafts waiting to callus
The season for bench-grafting is near. We won’t do ours for another three weeks, but some folks have already been slicing away. The question has come up: “What do I do with my newly grafted trees?”
Here’s what we do:
Immediately after grafting, we place the trees in a 5-gallon bucket of water, submerging the roots (but NOT the graft). A 5-gallon bucket will fit up to 50 newly grafted trees.
Within a day we remove the trees from the bucket of water and place them in a bucket of damp sawdust. Potting soil or wood shavings will work as well. We cover the roots, jiggling the bucket to get the sawdust to work its way around and make contact with the roots, then water them in. The medium should be damp but not waterlogged enough to rot the roots. Again as many as 50 trees can fit in a five-gallon bucket. For just a couple of trees, a large flower pot or small pail will do.
We put the bucket in a warm spot out of direct sun in our living room.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the grafts will callus (fuse) and begin to grow. It’s like magic.
Once the days are warmer we move the buckets out onto a covered porch each morning and bring them back inside at night. We continue to keep them out of direct sun for most of the day. The trees will grow slowly, which is good so they aren’t “leggy” when we set them in the nursery.
Once the coldest nights have passed (about mid-May in central Maine), we plant the trees about 12” apart in a “nursery row” where they will live for one or two growing seasons. During this time, we keep the trees weed-free. We also water them and fertilize as needed.
One or two years after grafting, we dig up the dormant trees (any time before about May 1 in central Maine) and replant them in their final spot. We even send them through the mail, as long as they are dormant.
Today was cold, dank, wet and raw. I spent the morning indoors looking at apples that I collected last fall in the Bucksport area from some old trees. In the afternoon I continued pruning in the Old Orchard. It felt wonderful to be outside.