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Fruit & Orchards

What I'm calling my Granny Smith tree

9 years ago

This is one of my wild apple trees I grafted onto last year. I have one branch Rhode Island Greening, One branch Antoncova or something like that. Its a green Russian apple. Then the bigger branches I cleft grafted with Granny Smith. The granny smith grafts grew about three foot last year. I pruned some of it down for scion wood this year. I Took off the last big branch at the top this year, and cleft grafted it, and some of the other areas on the tree. Now the only buds on this tree are the little suckers coming off the tops of the longer branches. I plan to tie the top shoots down when the grafts get stronger.

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Comments (10)

johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
more pictures
johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
I like how fat this Granny Smith scion got from last year.
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I agree with mikeeatplants. Muscadines would be a great idea. They basically are very large grapes that grow in loose bunches and are disease resistant enough to be grown in hot and humid Florida. They are sweet with very good flavor, better than store bought grapes. Based on that description you might be wondering why they aren't more popular. The reason is that they have very thick skins, (my guess is 3-4 mm) and the skins are very tough. The skins can be eaten but aren't very enjoyable to most. Many also have seeds, so there are some drawbacks but I think the flavor is outstanding. They can't take winter temps much lower than US zone 7 but you should be alright assuming by -10 you mean -10 C not F. Here is a short description from http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/muscadines.html. Muscadine Grapes If you're interested in growing grapes in Florida, then look no further than the muscadine grape, native to our state and other areas of the Southeast. Sometimes called scuppernongs, these grapes are popular because they have a high degree of tolerance to pests and diseases and can be grown with minimal or no use of pesticides. Muscadines differ from the bunch grapes found in the produce section of the supermarket in that they are thicker-skinned, somewhat spicy-sweet, and are picked individually from the vine rather than in bunches.
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johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
It's hard to get the branches to show up. Here is a better shot of the longer branches I grafted. Rhode Island Greening is everything going to the left, Antonecova is the first two on the right on the right and is also the cleft graft behind it. The rest are all Granny Smith except the six inch suckers going straight up on top of the main branch. I have buds peaking out on the big cleft graft I just did, I didn't even tape that graft its just held by the tension of the cleft split, and bees waxed.
johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
Here is the last top I grafted. You can kind of see the green tips coming out on the right side. This growth might all get pruned out as the tree fills in, but I will get lots of scion wood latter from it. I just grafted it nine days ago! Its been raining a lot here. Things are really starting to green up. My plan was to make this tree all Granny Smith. Then I was having a hard time getting the scion wood. Big Horse Orchard said They had the next best thing called Rhode Island Greening so I thought I would get a couple of those. I finally found some Granny Smith in Ohio. He was kind enough to send a surprise of an extra scion of Antonecova, so I put that on two branches. It makes it a three in one now, but mostly Granny Smith. I think it will really go nuts with growth this year. I can't wait to see. I noticed the Granny Smith is last to break dormancy as you can see the lower buds on last years grafts in the background are still dormant.
johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
The graft with the long skinny tag is Antonecova from last year. It was just a two bud graft and as you can see they grew out about two foot. The other Antonecova graft is out of sight just to the left on that same branch. going to the right is The Rhode Island greening.
johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
See how skinny the scion was on the Granny Smith cleft grafts.
User
9 years ago
I like to see these photos of top working. I've left a lot more of the original branches, maybe I should start cutting some more.
User
9 years ago
I like to see these photos of top working. I've left a lot more of the original branches, maybe I should start cutting some more.
johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
last year
johnnysapples
Original Author
9 years ago
Another from last year. You can see the top branch I left on that cut off this year and cleft grafted. This was taken April 25th 2013.

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