Topworking or, The Royal Society For Putting Things On Top Of Other Things

This year, is going to be a great year, for the royal society for putting things, on top of other things (Please see here for further explanation). I'm doing my bit for this illustrious society in the form of topworking. Topworking is an arborcultural process commonly employed in orchards where new varieties are grafted onto mature trees. The aim is to preserve all the time and effort that has gone into growing the existing tree while diverting its efforts toward a new crop. Two of my front yard fruit trees fall firmly into this category. A 'Story' Apricot and Plumcot, planted in the same hole have grown well but fruited poorly. The Story, known also as an Early Moorpark, grows like a rocket but produces a small crop for its size. The plumcot is a slower grower and last year produced its first ever fruit, singular. Long story short, I'm impatient and I don't have years to sit around waiting for a tree to produce just ONE fruit (although I actually do and probably will). My intention is to use these two trees as an experimental platform to test new grafting techniques I haven't tried before and to try some of the multitude of plum and apricot varieties available to kinds of people who sit up late at night looking at fruit on the internet. The grafting techniques best suited to topworking are the Cleft and the Bark Inlay. Both these are suited to joining stock and scion materials with dissimilar sizing. Choosing between the two may be merely a matter of preference and success rate, but I've also found that the Cleft graft is better suited to smaller stocks and Bark Inlay comes in to play with the thinker, older branches. Below are two Cleft grafts onto the Apricot. They vary only in the material used to seal the cleft as I decided tape would most likely provide the better seal. The first variety is a Green Gage from my next door neighbor. Like green lollies on a stick they are the sweetest plums I've ever tasted. The second is an unknown plum also next door. With a wide variety of unknown scion wood incoming its going to be fun detective work trying to find out what they all are. Coming up in the next post, my first attempt at a Bark Inlay graft.

 

The Plum and Apricot Experimental Grafting Platform or PAEGP, take that NASA.

Cutting the cleft and coddling it while the scion wood is prepared. The cut requires restraint and a hammer.

 

 Tile spacing wedges! My innovative contribution to Cleft grafting. They force open the gap and keep it open while you whittle away.

The first graft sealed with sticky purple grafting wax. I reckon when I'm an old man I'll still be using the same tub of this stuff.

 

I am particularly proud of the alignment of the wood on the right. I mean I'm my own harshest critic but, I think its master craftsmanship.

 

The tape sealed second graft.

Petty's Orchard

In a search for new apple scion wood bordering on madness I found myself driving to Templestowe on Sunday to visit the heritage apple orchard at Petty's Orchard and run by the Heritage Fruits Society (HFS). Although I had missed their purpose built 'Apple Grafting Day' some weeks previous (which I will continue to kick myself over), I had hoped that there might be some bits of wood left. On arrival I met John who runs the commercial operation at Petty's and oversees the orchard as a whole. He pointed me in the direction of the HFS guys who must have seen me coming and made a smart decision to pack it in for the afternoon. As luck would have it, I managed to pin down Ian and Fred, the big cheeses of the HFS just as they were about to leave and introduced myself. Unfortunately, almost tragically, I had missed the box of scion wood by minutes and logistically speaking I was more or less out of luck. More importantly though I was able to have a chat with Ian and Fred about the heritage apple orchard they maintain with its 200 varieties and the opportunities available for the aspiring orchardist, such as myself. I'm looking forward to going back in a months time when the blossom has hit to roll up my sleeves and help out in a real apple orchard. Plus they said they're gonna burn things and you wouldn't even need to be a gardener to enjoy that!

Various styles of pruning and training are used in the heritage orchard. Can they compete with my style of not quite knowing what I'm doing including grafting with calipers and weeding with sterilized tweezers? Only time will tell.

Wildlife! It's all so very different close up isn't it. Its terribly important to have some water fowl in your orchard, I must remember to get some,

On the way home I found out that Templestowe can be a mysterious and truley magical place. Undeniably influence by back to the future II and III, someone had tried their hand at converting a Commodore station wagon into a time travelling Delorean! Clearly they've run into a few teething problems as they've not been able to decide whether to go for the flying version from BTTFII (refer to rear wheel) or the esoteric railcar variety from BTTFIII (front).

You've got to make up your mind on which wheels to have. For me its always the flying one (left).

Here's the piece of 'Bonza' scion wood that Fred was kind enough to give me as a consolation prize. It's interesting, I can't think of any other pursuit in life where the gifting of a small stick could convey such meaning and gratitude as in the noble field of Orcharding. Perhaps in that dependable union of (Hu)man and dog, but slobber and teeth marks do not a good piece of scion wood make.

I wasted no time grafting it to a main branch of the Sturmer tree in the orchard. While these trees are just starting out I think it's an ideal time to add new varieties to these 'founding' branches so they can become a significant part of the tree.

Note: The spell checker in Firefox refuses to acknowledge the existence of the word 'orchardist', suggesting in its place 'harpsichordist'. Sigh...

Crab Apple Grafting

Its the first day of Spring and with the urge to garden comes the urge to blog, as well as other urges that are weird and confusing. After last years irritatingly successful grafting, I've been looking for a way to increase my apple cultivar diversity without taking up more than the generous area already allocated. The answer of course is to start adding bits to my existing apple trees. Of particular interest to me is finding crab apple trees and grafting them onto my normal sized apple trees. Crab apples create viable pollen for desert/cooking/cider/whatever varieties and also have prolonged flowering periods which is an enormous boon if you have a lot of trees that flower at slightly different times. And we're always on the lookout for enormous boons.

England has its hedgerows, America has the historic frontier orchards of Johnny Appleseed and I've got North Road, Oakleigh South opposite the Kittens Car Wash operated by a local adult entertainment complex which is very active in the community. The focus of my attention on this day however is a row of what I believe to be quite old crab apples teetering on the brink of bursting into bright red blooms which last for almost a month. Luckily they are street trees so it isn't a morally questionable act to help with their pruning and in a few minutes with some funny looks from passers-by, I had what I was after.

 

A number of questions spring to mind when harvesting budwood from apple trees. Are they actually apple trees? I'm almost 100 percent sure in this case but I can't completely dispel that nagging doubt that I don't know what I'm doing. I expect mushroom hunters feel much the same. Are they healthy? Now here is a definite legitimate concern yes? If I said I was going to hang out on a seedy street corner opposite a strippers car wash and strap a foreign object to something of mine you'd be at least a little concerned. How do you know for sure that an apple tree is healthy and that the grafting process isn't going to bring some kind of virus into your orchard. I'll have to dwell on this but for the moment i'll settle for a visual inspection of the tree and its constitution. Last of all, am I going to get in trouble? Why can't people just be cool? These harvested specimens were just starting to take off so I got in just in time.

My arsenal of grafting weaponry including my most excellent rose budding knife and indispensible paddle pop sticks. I have dispensed with the mastic grafting wax. Messy, time consuming and wierd it didn't seem to contribute much to the process. With good grafting tape (which is well worth the money!) the union is very well sealed?

  

What, you don't use digital calipers to measure your grafting site diameter? I wouldn't blame you, its just stupid. But they were expensive and I need to justify their purchase whenever possible. And also, grafting is science!

A before and after of my first crab apple appendage. In this case appended to one of my street apple trees, a Corryong Seedling on M26. I was quite pleased with the graft line-up except the top needed to be squeezed together somewhat with the tape. Side by side I'm sufficiently reassured that I found an apple tree that day. Time will tell.

The Massive Mop Graft Update

It's been ages since I've taken updated photos on the progress of the mop graft, the legendary M26 rootstock which I selfishly hoarded away as it had more roots than all the other 19 rootstocks I ordered put together. With its expansive and well developed booties (roots), the mop graft found pride of place in my apple orchard and was crowned with a carefully selected piece of the mysteriously delicious unnamed apple which I have temporarily given the working title 'Corryong Seedling' (patent pending!). The scion wood was cut and delivered with the utmost care by the father of a friend and aside from the mountain ash sized mop graft, there are about 15 strong and healthy maiden trees growing in the nearby stool bed (that is what it's called, I didn't have an accident in my sleep). I have been photographing the tree itself as well as a closeup of the graft so I can get right in there and eyeball the fascinating process of grafting at whatever magnification I desire. The last photo I took was just before the tape had been removed and a great deal has happened since then. I waited as long as I could before removing the tape but it became urgent when it appeared that the trunk was starting to swell beyond the stretch of the tape. A month or two down the track and the trunk has doubled in size, it's becoming hard to differentiate the boundary between the stock and the scion. The tree has put on loads of healthy growth, no doubt thanks to its big feet. Above is a picture of the fruit it will bear should I succeed. This seems inevitable, barring a meteor strike or some kind of giant nibbling rabbit.

Grafting Update - The Unveiling

The only step involved in grafting that no one on the Internet seems to agree on, is when to remove your grafting tape. Too soon and the graft union may not have formed completely, also removing the significant strength the tape adds to the join. Too late and the graft may 'girdle' as the scion bulges or 'muffin-tops' as it is called these days, over the tape. Is there a worry free solution? Certainly. Special grafting tape is available that works like dissolving stitches, protecting and supporting the graft, then bio-degrading when its job is done. However, if you don't feel like paying $45 for a roll of special sticky tape, normal stretchy grafting tape will do the job. But you will have to angst over when to perform the unveiling. Luckily, I have twenty apple trees and can designate one as a sacrificial lamb. I chose this one because the graft looked virile and bulging under the tape and I am photographing it every day to observe its progress. Everything is going well 4 days in and the graft appears to change colour as it reacts to the air.

The mop-graft will be unwrapped shortly if everything goes well with the test graft.

Apple Update

Crofton 20 Cent Mark & Mop Graft Progress

Mop rootstock graft update

Apple Grafting, More Of

The mop rootstock receives an unfair level of care, attention and photography.

If you look closely you can see the whip and tongue graft under the grafting tape. When the graft was done the scion and rootstock wood was well aligned and pressed firmly against each other. A light coloured layer has appeared in the join which I assume is part of the formation of the graft.

Flowering continues.

This is my double grafted rootstock which will produce two of exactly the same apple on the same tree! Amazing eh.

I've never seen this before, its baby Preying Mantis season. This is the second one I've seen in the last few days lurking around in the apple blooms. I hope they like aphids and and are immune to pyrethrum but I'm probably asking too much.