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Fruit & Orchards

Graft apple to wild crab apple?

12 years ago

I just grafted some apple scions to a wild crab apple. All of them are the same variety. Will this work? I have a lot of wild crab apple and wild cherry seedlings growing in the lot next door. (My lot) If this works I can dig them up and transplant them and expand my selection of trees for free. I like free. This is my first time trying to graft. I left one branch on the tree until I get some growth, hopefully.

Bill

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Comments (5)

windfall_rob
12 years ago
If the grafts take it should work fine. I have done it lots. You tend to get a grab bag of rootstock vigor...mostly high.

But if you don't mind that, it can be a great way to get a more develped tree for free. Take you time when you dig them out and you can take a lot of root.

most of the ones I have done I left in place.

When I have done it on stuff this size, I have topworkerd over multiple branches higher up. I don't know how long a big cleft graft like that takes to heal up all the way.
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gonebananas_gw
12 years ago
Are those bark grafts or two clefts crossed? Do two clefts work well? I don't think I have ever seen them.

It is said that Stark Brothers (I think it was) got started by grafting apple scions they had transported onto native crabapples in Missouri where they established.
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I know I need to prune some little branches out of the way. I cut the two biggest limbs off the tree when cleft grafting. I only have three small branches left and they will get cut back next spring when I ad more grafts. I left one third of the tree for nurse branches. I can open it up a little more when I get time. So your saying the pear will die. I thought people were growing pears on apple trees from what I have read. Then there were people grafting winter banana and then grafting pear onto that. I have five out of seven pears with leaves. Even if it doesn't take no big deal. It was fun trying.
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You hear some stories about interspecies grafting but I've only seen apple on apple. There's a man who's name escapes me, who devotes much of his time collecting old southern apple varieties and written 2 books on the subject. There are varieties that can grow there without too much fuss, but getting fruit is another question. If you want fruit, spray will usually be necessary and bagging can be done to greatly reduce that. If you got apples without spraying and/or bagging it may have been a rare event but if it continues to happen, keep us all posted. I'm very interested in insect resistant apple varieties as are many on this forum. The only varieties that are insect resistant here are quite late ripening ones so yours would be quite a find.
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Almost all apples and crab apples can pollinate each other, so as long as you have different kinds, I wouldn't worry about it. Crabapples are particularly good pollinators because they bloom for a long time. More importantly, what kinds are you planting exactly? When you say you've started some trees, do you mean from seed? Apple seedlings are very variable. They'll resemble their parents only as much as, say, we resemble our own parents. And if you don't know who the father (pollen parent) was, it's even harder to predict what the offspring will be like. What if that tasty light red apple of yours was pollinated by a tiny sour crabapple? If I were you, I'd make sure I knew exactly what I was planting, and buy some grafted trees. Then again, it can be fun to be surprised, so if you like surprises, enjoy.
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Commercially, the Crabs are grafted onto dwarf rootstocks on separate trees. There can be some disease issues putting multiple grafts onto one tree, especially virus. Once you graft a virus infected scion to the tree, it goes into the rest of the tree. I would not graft crab apple onto standard for pollen. Plant it next to your regular apple on a dwarf rootstock.
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rmbill
Original Author
12 years ago
I just split the trunk crossways and jammed the scions in place. I then wrapped everything tightly with vinyl electrical tape and coated it all. I made sure that everything lined up good. I think that is cleft grafting. We will see what happens.
Bill
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alan haigh
12 years ago
That's how I do a cleft graft. I would never bother with a tree where yours is located, however- not without clearing the land around it.

I have grafted over entire "orchards" of wild crabs of much more size than that but I prefer using splice grafts off of vigorous water sprouts because I can do it much quicker. I'll even butcher a tree a year ahead to get the kind of growth I want to graft onto.
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rmbill
Original Author
12 years ago
Not an ideal location for sure. I just wanted to see if this would work. If the graft takes, I'll dig it up and move it to an acre that I have down the street. I have a lot of these wild crab apples and wild cherries so it could work out pretty good if I am successful. Can I graft plums to the wild cherry? I do these things just for the fun of it. I already have around twenty five trees. I gave up on getting rich years ago. :-)
Bill
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