Thread: Fruit, Nut, and Vine Grafting, Tree Propagation, Tree Care

Well between the Tornado and a few days at 9 degrees the I lost a few specialized Plum trees. Some were from Southern California, those froze. The last I discovered was dead was featured in a earlier post. It is the one loaded down with Yellow Plums. Well while carrying out winter pruning I found a dead limb. I started cutting it back and the entire tree had died. No outside evidence at all other than I thought it went dormant early.

Then during the Tornado my Flavor Punch Plurrey (Plum x Cherry) was killed when another tree fell on it. Lastly a delicious plum tree Laroda froze. I lost a couple of others but the fruit didn't excite me so I planting something else there.

I had 2 Peach trees die, one from California it froze and another that died from Early Peach Tree Death, yes it's a thing. Anyway moving forward.



The first Peach tree had plenty of roots but died from the roots up. The limbs didn't know the roots were dead. Early Peach Tree Death .... this tree was 4 years old. The other had a Citation rootstock and it froze.



Planting a new Golden Nectar Plum up behind the house on the Berm. Since the other tree died from unnatural causes I dug out a good bit of the dirt and relaced it first.



Having a Bobcat with a 6ft Dirt Bucket to dig your Native Dirt, Priceless. I have a big dirt pile out by the Muscadines so 1 scoop of the Bucket and I moved all the dirt I needed for planting the 3 new trees.



I get down on the ground separating by hand, all the feeder roots by height and direction layering them with the replacement native dirt. Once I have them how I think they will have the best opportunity for establishment and growth I pour a 2 gallon bucket of rain water over everything to settle dirt around the roots removing possible trapped air. Then I put more dirt on top filling the hole. One thing I learned with these Zaigler California trees on the Citation rootstock is to not set the Root Crown too low. It stunts their growth.



Making a Dam all the way around the tree I fill inside with 2-3 more gallons of rain water. after allowing the water to seep in I finish the planting by grading the area smooth.



A final pruning to limit the load on the roots allowing them to get established also starting the "Open Vase" bowl of a proper Plum tree shape.



So the Flavor Punch Plurrey and Laroda Plum trees are in the Berm too. Plums grow very well there but a little too much shade for a Peach now that the Pecan trees have grown so tall.

Very nice. Hate you lost your trees though. I need to get some of those trees too and add variety to my future orchard.

My Brother from another Mother's family has a property over here on the Gulf Coast. I build a house on it 10 years ago. Well someone planted 3 Mayhaw trees on it and I'm guessing here but since they are growing just 500ft from the Gulf a bit of Lime must have been applied to the soil. The PH has always been very low around the property. Anyway it looks like this tree's intended graft died and Suckers grew in it's place. 4 trunks intertwining so I had a bit of a time cleaning it up.



It's hard to tell that it is a Mawhaw except by the Bark & THORNS! Man, this tree ate me up.



Here is a shot of what I took off. Some was dead so being dormant I can't tell which trunk will have vigor so grafting will have to wait till we see the growth pattern. I have Scion wood harvested and stored in my fridge now so I will be able to graft it in a couple of months.



Pictures of the trunks from different angles reveals the Sucker growth overtaking the intended, grafted variety. My Scion wood buds 1 month later than this tree so grafting it over will ensure frost doesn't kill the blooms in the future. Also the Mayhaws are almost a inch in size.



This is a picture of the first Mayhaw tree cleaned up and ready for Bud Break.



This is the second tree. Notice the lack of growth. I always survey the surroundings when I see a obviously older tree that was covered in Suckers before I removed them but no vigor to the tree. Look in the background and you do not see the over growth, just scrubby stuff. This is a sign of very low PH, nutrient, and overall poor growing conditions. Lime takes 3 months to leach into the soil enough to raise the PH, I'm thinking some fast acting Lawn Lime treatment, the powdered stuff or Slag if I can get my hands on some applied from the trunk 15ft out from the base and some Fruit Tree Spikes into the soil line for feeding all summer should boost this little Mayhaw tree in the right direction.



The last Mayhaw tree I cleaned up was a jungle as well. Shaded all the way to the ground with overgrowth of Suckers. This tree I think is the only one that the original graft survived but the over growth of the Suckers pushed to to reach out to the right to catch some morning sunlight. I will be working on training the tree to grow up and to the left. With the Suckers now clear from it's left side Mother Nature will assist. See all that now exposed bark to the sun, it will pop new Limbs all along it. I will remove the undesirable and train the rest to get this tree back in balance. It has blooms and they did survive the cold but it is blooming way too early. Later grafts will bring a larger, later blooming fruit that does not "Shatter" so when the family spends time out there fruit will be on the tree.

Nice. They look better.

If you have Citrus trees or Fig trees in black pots I have discovered sunlight on the pots kills the roots. This has been a little painful as I have lost some new tree rootings and my citrus trees that have multiple trees in a 200 gallon pot their roots are too close to the side of the pot killing them. By the time you see the damage in the tree itself chances are they will not survive without a lot of work.

I bought this Blackout fabric, it comes in 3 layers but I am only using the outer layer. I will save the rest for another project. Anyway it comes 13ft wide so I had to cut it on my sewing table.



No realizing how this material will ravel I used Basting Tape to hem the sides.



I thought running a seam over the Hem would secure it for sure but the material is so thin my sewing machine can't sew it so I just did the hem on the rest and let it ride.



Here's a picture of the first 2 200gal planter pots I wrapped with the white material. Underneath the material in direst sunlight you barely feel the heat. This should fix the stress the citrus trees was under last year providing a better harvest this year.



Following up on the Fig tree rooting project for this year as you can see most of the trees are off to a great start. I still have a few "Fig Pops" upstairs waiting on them to root. Most are my own scions, skinny pruning's that may not have the carbs to root.

Awesome! Love seeing those figs growing.

The Rootstock from my Pear tree survived. I allowed it to reroot, pruning for strength, and topworked the three strong shoots I trained to 2 varieties of Pear. Warren, which is so sweet & juicy, zero grit, you bite into it and juice runs down your chin. Two are Warren and the other is Kieffer a very strong pollinator.

So it's been 30 days or so and most of the Page Mandarin Scions grafted to various citrus tree stumps have broke and are growing. Not all scions made it as some were very skinny, a few of those are delayed or dead.



These are examples of why I like to use rubber bands in the initial grafting stage. It has been 30 days and the sun has eaten up the rubber bands to the point they are falling off. If you don't have Cambium Fusion in 30 days the extra clamping won't help in my opinion. The Linerless Rubber Splicing tape has more integrity and still provides a lesser clamping force but all the clamping force needed in 30 days.



Cambium Fusion has obviously occurred as we have bud breaking all over the scions.



These Topworking Grafts were done last summer after we found out Valencia Oranges were terrible fresh eating oranges. I cut the tree off leaving a Nurse branch and grafted a new variety on the stump. The new growth currently is crazy vigorous. I have to keep watch almost daily as the Swallowtail Moth has already laid eggs on this new tree growth. 3 big green worm Larvae can strip this growth in a couple of days.