Top grafting
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Otherwise known as 'top working' or 'grafting
over', this is a
technique for converting an apple tree which is growing OK in
the right place but whose fruit is unacceptable for some reason and you
want to replace it with a different variety. This is much better than
digging out the tree and replacing it with a new one and is used
commercially. As mentioned elsewhere, I have done this a few times over
the
past few years, once when I realised that Spartan was very prone to
scab and also did not sell well-I grafted over 40 trees to Suntan and
Ashmead's Kernel (I have not regretted this one bit) and in the spring
of 2007 when I grafted over 8 cider apple Crimson King (not to be
confused with the 70s prog rock band King Crimson) to 4 each of Harry
Masters' Jersey and Dabinett, as the latter 2 varieties proved to be
far better on our land. So far these are growing OK and the
pictures in this page are taken from this example. The picture
immediately below shows a tree after top working, in April. Note that
it has been cut back severely and several polythene ties can be seen,
see below for close ups and explanations.
Top working can employ more than one grafting style. In this case, I
used
saddle grafts, cleft grafts, rind grafts and stab grafts. Like many
things in life, if you get an understanding
for the basic techniques and underlying principles, you can improvise
and get away with it much of the time. Life could hardly go on
otherwise. I am always amazed when any graft takes successfully,
however
many times I see it happen. The tree in the picture below shows 4 kinds
of graft. From left to right, double rind raft, saddle graft, double
cleft graft (right upper) and single rind graft (right lower). The
different techniques suit different diameters of wood and angles
better, th more techniques you are competent with , the more versatile
you can be. NOTE the saddle graft is coming right at you in the photo
and is much thinner than it appears due to perspective. They all took
well, some even tried to set fruit!
As with all forms of grafting, cut clean straight growths of last years
wood LABEL THEM, wrap in
polythene and store in the fridge (not
freezer. take care if like us your fridge freezes up in places.) If you
are short
of fridge space, a damp sack in a cool dark place will do. Keep it
damp. Cut this
wood before any sign of green appears, February to early March is best.
You then graft ONTO A GROWING TREE once spring starts. Others will say
graft in the dormant season, I only teach what I know and what I do.
You decide, but since I started grafting dormant stored scion wood onto
actively growing rootstock, usually in April, I have had the highest
success rates ever, close to 90%.
The picture below is a double rind graft, picture taken a few weeks
after grafting,
you can see leaves coming from the end on one of the scion pencils. The
next picture shows the same or an identical graft 2 months later. To do
the rind graft, saw across, slit the bark, then slip your taper cut
scion down and tie firmly (described more fully below). Seal with wax, making sure wax doesn't get
between live wood surfaces you are hoping to graft.
This double rind graft has now taken beautifully, you can see
shoots coming out as well as abundant leaf. The great thing about top
working is that you are beginning with a strong root, trunk and main
branch system, so there is a huge amount of natural energy to force up
growth. This is why you can go from zero to full fruiting in 3 years,
FAR better than digging out and replanting, although even that is
preferable to putting up with an apple variety which is wrong for you. The pictures above were taken shortly after grafting in
April 2007, the
pictures BELOW are the same trees in July the same year. you
can see the grafts have taken and grown well, there were only a few failures, and
most of those were due to birds perching on the fragile new branches and snapping them off. We have never asked for or received a penny of agricultural subsidy, but I think it is justified to compensate farmers and growers for the economic loss caused by these pretty animals which the law prevents us from taking action against. Not that I would bake blackbirds, let alone rooks, in a pie. Well only a few now and then, but it is frustrating to see the damage birds do especially since we have planted half a mile of hedgerow and 2 acres of coppice which benefit them enormously.
RIND GRAFT
Rind grafting was accomplished using 2 tools, the Silky
Fox saw (I use no other) to saw the branch off, and the Opinel number 6
stainless steel penknife, sharpened and sterilised. Saw across, make a
3cm slit down the bark, then sharpen a piece if scion wood into a wedge
and slide it down between rind and the underlying wood. Make a perfect
fit, then do the same on the other side, squeeze a bit of soft grafting
wax to seal the loose edge of the rind, and secure with tape. The
picture shows the result, on the left you can see the free edge of rind
which has callused over. (callus is temporary healing tissue, something very
similar is produced when human or animal bones are healing after a
break, a sort of auto-graft scaffolding/glue)
here's a picture of the same union from a different angle, showing on
the right a free growing shoot arising from the rootstock. we do not
want this, and it is vital to cut it off as (a) it is of the variety
you don't want and are replacing., and (b) it will compete with the
chosen new variety. Cut it out, the sooner the better (should have been
done before now, too busy).
Here is a successful CLEFT graft, on a thinner
diameter branch. This involves, after sawing the branch across, using a
heavier knife to split it down the middle, HORIZONTALLY where the branch is other than entirely upright(this is important, vertically cut clefts fail much more often) then cutting 2 scion pencils
to wedge shapes, with a square butt, and fitting them into the cleft so
they are wedged firmly. This can be a very easy graft to perform. NOTE
the thin sliver of scion wood trapped firmly between the 2 sides of the
split (clefted) rootstock branch. This technique leaves a gap in the
middle between the 2 scions (always do 2), fill this up with grafting
wax. Again, this is a double graft, usually employed in
these cases to avoid asymmetry. With a very big
diameter stock (best avoided but sometimes inevitable) I will sometimes graft 3 or 4
pencils in.
CLEFT GRAFT AGAIN, SMALLER DIAMETER STOCK The technique you use depends
to a large extent on the
diameter, and particularly on the difference in diameter between
rootstock and scion. You can't do cleft grafts on to really big
diameter stocks, the above is about the upper limit, as it leaves too
big a gap in between which can be an entry point for diseases and
insects-smaller gaps will seal themselves. Below is another example of
the cleft graft using a very thin diameter, about the thinnest you
could use.The honey coloured stuff above the join is grafting wax, you
have to look twice to see that there are 2 scions in this picture, they
have swelled up somewhat since grafting was performed/ you can see the
thin tapering wedge to the left of the midline below the join with
healthy callus either side. The straight slit in the wood to the right
of the midline was made by the sharp knife I used to release the
polythene tie, ideally I would not have made this cut but it is
unlikely to do any harm. The pressure of the sap inside the actively
growing wood has caused it to open a millimetre
Saddle grafting (dealt with elsewhere) is useful where the stock and
scion wood are nearly or exactly the same diameter. This is my
favourite graft whenever possible and I use it exclusively for grafting
onto new young stocks in the nursery. This technique requires stock and
scion to be similar diameters (you can push the limits if yous skill
improves) and basically means cutting a sloping V shaped 'male'
wedge in the stock, a corresponding V shaped 'female' shape in the
scion, marrying the 2 together and whipping with polythene tape. Looks
a bit like this
====>>====
The flexibility of the thinly cut live wood means you can almost always
get very good cambium to cambium contact (the cambium being the live
growing wet area under the bark) and this sort almost always takes
successfully once you nave got the basic hang of it.
this looks a bit wonky as the polythene has just come off, and may have
been applied a bit too tight, but should do well. I will add some
pictures of mature grafts later.
Sometimes you want a new branch to some out of a main trunk, difficult.
It can be done by the stab graft, which consists of a scion cut to
shape and inserted through a cut made in the main body of the tree.
This is an occasional graft and not recommended as it fails more than
some other sorts and may let disease into the tree.
STAB GRAFT
This was growing away well. The technique here was to raise an oblong
flap, slide the tapered scion down tightly, making good smooth cambium to cambium contact, wax and tie firmly with polythenne tape to hold the live edges together as they grow into each other. Some old books
say nail it down with a fine pin, I haven't tried this.
There are other techniques, the saddle and cleft are the ones I use
most although the rind is also very helpful at times. I recently used
the techiniques of top working to convert an unwanted and very badly
trained Bramley over to a Baker's Delicious, a rare and very tasty
early dessert apple, and I am glad to say it was entirely successful
with fruit in the second year. Another time, when we were planting out
the Cobbett's orchard, we realised we needed more trees of Winter King as they
were so popular with customers and had an excellent shelf life. I had
plenty of oversized surplus to requirements MM106 rootstocks which were going to be thrown out, so I
planted them in a row 33 in all, and cleft grafted every one with
Winter King. I am glad to say I had 100% take and those trees are
carrying a very heavy crop today (14th July 2007).
Every orchardist
should consider learning how to graft, for economy, to help others (save your friend or neighbour a sample of that lovely old tree in the house they have to leave)and for fun. You can always try the first time in a low-risk
situation by just trying to saddle graft a few pencils of a different
variety into an established tree, this can be useful for
pollination-another benefit of the technique.
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