Sure, it never hurts to try. We are coming in to late summer budding season -- you take growing wood from your moms tree with buds for next year formed on it, and graft it to the rootstock, and if it works your new tree will grow out next spring. Do a search on budding grafting apples or something like that and you will find tutorials online on how to do it. Make sure you do either a T-bud or chip bud method.

Scott

Gina:

Yes, you can save the rootstock for future grafting, but extreme bushiness is not a favorable development for a rootstock intended for grafting. If it is possible to do so, I would select the strongest, straightest of the stems and prune off all of the others, then continue to prune them off as they develop all season long. The final result that you seek is one nice stem around 3/8 to 1/2 inch for grafting next spring.

Many grafted trees sucker extensively from the rootocks, but some do not, and I can't explain to you why this is true. But the suckering is a royal pain in the neck on a apple tree, and requires frequent sucker removal each and every season on trees with this tendency. If you can encourage this rootstock to put its energy into one nice stem, and discourage all the others, you might end up with some good grafting material. But I wouldn't try it now, although I am sure you could do it next spring with a little coaching from the people who contribute here.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Hmm. I just figured it just bushed out because the tree had died. Would I be grafting to where the dead stick is? Or grafting to another part of the rootstock?

Should I cut the dead stick off?

I'm in Wisconsin, I think people do grafting in the spring, but I'm not sure.

Thank you for advice!

Gina

Gina:

Of course you should cut off the dead stick. Why would you leave it? And, yes, it bushed out because the tree had died, but that will not naturally and automatically produce a nice stem for grafting unless you select one from the many stems and encourage it to grow nice and straight, and stronger than it would be if you left the thing to grow into a big bush with multiple stems.

All of the stems that comprise your bush originate at the rootstock, and you would graft to one of these after having cut it off to about 4 inches from the soil line. You do not graft to the roots themselves. Spring is probably the best time to graft in Wisconsin, but you would want to take a scion from the tree you wish to use for grafting purposes in the dormant period, then store it is moist refrigeration fully dormant until spring, when the selected rootstock stem begins to show signs of waking up.

Does this help to clarify things for you?

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Absolutely, save the rootstock.

Personally, I would prune off all suckerage except one, that you will tape into an upright position to become next years graft stalk. Get some nice, last-summers-growth scion wood from your moms tree in November, keep it moist in a frig till May of next year, and graft it. Study grafting on the net all winter until you puke! There is only so much to know, and then all your grafts will take!

I say all this to help you avoid wasting the roots already established in the ground. That would be a shame.

I have taken wild apple trees 5 inches in diameter, and grafted them over to known cultivars after stumping them off at maybe 6 inches tall, and that with a chainsaw. It is easy. It works. It makes you happy! Same for pears.

Thanks! My fiance wants to take a piece of his pear and plum trees with him when he moves here, but it's too late in the year to do much at all - even hardwood cuttings.

I studied grafting at that point until I got confused :-) Guess I need to study some more.

Ok, I will prune off all but one of the stems and point it up. This will obviously be much smaller than the one with the dead tree hanging on it. Should I wait, or can I graft on it in the spring? Maybe if I water the heck out of it I can get it fatter... my Honeycrisp really took off once I started to water it - haha.

5" stumps? Holy cats. It sounds so fun! I saw the apple trees at the nursery with 5 or 6 grafted types on them in the center of the tree, studied the grafts a bit - sure looks cool. Makes me want to try to layer propagate an extra stem off this rootstock ;-)

How big and wide should the scion wood be when I hack it off Mom's tree? =)

Thanks to all of you.

Gina:

If you are going to do a whip and tongue graft or a cleft graft, the caliper of the scion ideally should match the caliper of the rootstock stem as closely as possible. That way you can place more of the cambium layers in contact, although you don't have to match them all. It is best to avoid placing a larger scion on a smaller rootstock stem, although the opposite is frequently done.

With all the rain you have had in Wisconsin this spring and summer, it may not be necessary to water your rootstock at all. More water does not necessarily mean faster growth.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Very interesting thread here! But i'm confused. Many opine that most gardening problems come from the bottom up - from the soil, the roots, up. So if a fruit tree has died, why would the roots and soil remain robust enough to support yet another tree? Wouldn't that newly grafted tree be prone to whatever malady took its predecessor?

Estreya:

I think everyone, certainly me, is assuming this is a case of a failed graft. The rootstock beneath is most likely perfectly healthy. The only reasonable argument against re-grafting is that the rootstock may be prone to suckering because of the extensive bushy growth that has already occurred. That is why I have focused on reducing the growth to one strong root stem, to see if it can be brought to heel. If it can, it's a good candidate for a new graft.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Wow, Don! Thank you for your reply. As a newcomer to fruit trees, everything about grafting seems kind of miraculous to me ...

Ok, I went out to whack all the sprouts but one... but there seems to be one up higher - could you guys look at this and tell me if one of these is actually from the top of the grafted part? It appears that the bunnies girdled the tree over the winter, but I'm hoping somebody can tell me I can save one of these sprouts as a main tree!

{{gwi:121764}}

the cluster to the left has grown up from the ground. There is one branch low to the left and one higher on the right. The dead stick is still attached. thanks for any advice!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:121763}}

Looks like you have living tree right above the graft to me.
The lower branch on the other side may be coming out below the graft.

How close is that picture, I'm not seeing the rabbit damage unless that's it in the top of the picture.
If that's it I would cut everything on the left, prune the right to the part that's going up to a single trunk and cut the dead wood back.
And then put some hardware fabric around it to keep the rabbits out.

Yes, it's girdled and has those vertical markings right on the top of the photo and above. It's turned brown now since spring. There are a couple more pics in my webshots. Should I cut the dead wood off all level with the sprout on the right? It's between 1-1/8" to 1-1/4" in diameter. I could maybe use my big pruner but it might be better to put something between the new and the dead and gently saw it. Then do I put something on the dead part? I've been putting diazinon crystals around the tree because of these little reddish ants crawling around it.

I'm so hopeful I can save the tree!