I have been intrigued with grafting trees for years. After spending the winter reading, studying, and watching videos on youtube, I’m jumping into it headfirst. Here I am collecting scion wood from one of the wild apple trees near us. You have to collect the wood now and keep it refrigerated and dormant in order to graft in late April or early May.
This is the apple tree we call the Lemon Apple. It is greenish yellow when ripe and sweet with a bit of a citrus flavor to it. I have my back to it in the picture above–it’s the tree in the middle with lots of dead wood, water sprouts, and broken branches. It’s growing in the midst of the native oaks.
I’m trying to get a cutting that is about 1/4″ in diameter. You want wood that is less than a year old, the woodier stuff is harder to graft. When you watch videos of grafting, they’re usually taken in a tidy orchard with lots of healthy wood to cut. These wild apple trees have suffered in the drought, and they are not so forthcoming with healthy branches.
The scrawny tree in the picture above has some of the most delectable apples you will ever taste. And they’re good sized, too. Five apples can make a pie! Good to eat out of hand, great for cooking–we just call it The Best. Not a catchy name…
We’re going to take a few more cuttings to use for grafting and keep them in the refrigerator until the time is right. For the best success, you want the scion wood to be dormant and the root stock or tree that you’re grafting onto to be just breaking dormancy. That’s usually late April or early May at our elevation at over 6200′.
If this works, we’ll be saving these trees, because they seem to be near the end of their lifespan. It’s amazing that they survived at all in the years when we got less than 9″ of moisture for the entire year! Apple trees are tough, but they appreciate a little human intervention, pruning, for instance, and a drink of water in the driest years.
