The climate in New Zealand…would it be like Zone 8-10 or do you get ’cold’ weather in your Winters? I live in southern California and as you know, we dont get much ’rain’ let alone temperatures below 50* almost all year long. i visited Campbell Town Scotland once and that temperture remained cool and damp most of the year…(I was informed)…and though i always wanted to ’see’ Australia and New Zealand, i never got an invite so i don’t know the climate. a great encouragement to guys like us is to watch videos on Youtube about growing Food Forests!!!!…and those guys amazing success about all types of ideas!!!!!

In the spring of 2012, I attempted to graft a Pear scion onto my apple tree using Winter Banana Apple as an inter stem. (All of he grafting i do is "Whip and Tongue" grafts wrapped in grafting tape. I then coat the wrapped union with grafting wax) The parent branch was a Winesap Apple branch with a grafted Winter Banana Apple scion from a few years before. (I actually have two of these paired branches.) I then attempted to graft two "Kieffer" Pear scions onto my two Winter Banana Apple inter stems. The "Kieffer" Pear scions started to grow, but died a few weeks later. This spring (2014) I attempted to graft this Apple / Pear union again using the same Winter Banana Apple inter stems. I had just enough branch on my Winter Banana branches to try this experiment one more time. This time around, I used "Sunrise Pear" scionwood. The grafting was a screaming success! (I had enough "Sunrise Pear" scionwood to graft two branches onto my apple tree, and two more onto an ornamental pear. All four pear grafts were a success!) I have no idea why this experiment failed in 2012 and was a success in 2014. I do not know if it had to do with the pear variety used, or if it had to do with environmental circumstances. I will re-post in 2015 with an update. There are a few different treads on this subject so I will be re-posting on those threats also. Below are pictures taken on 07/27/2014.

I'd like to clarify some of the confusion regarding the "fuse-grafting techniques, and training methods that I have used on some trees. I will employ this same method on the fig trees that I have just purchased. I realize that this technique is not for everyone. I just wanted to share this information with you guys. Use it as you wish. "Fuse-grafting" techniques DO NOT involve cutting into the healthy bark so that the cambium layers can be aligned. No wounds are created by this technique so no insects or diseases will enter or infect the trunks being joined. No special follow-up treatments are needed. It is not labor-intensive. Once the stems are joined together, just follow your regular fig growing routines. The mainstems are simply screwed together to create a fatter, and stronger "trunk". The "composite-trunk" will not be weak, nor will they pull apart. The screwheads will quickly be covered over with new bark, and in time, you will not be able to tell that the heavy, fat trunk was at one time, made up of individual stems. This "grafting" will take a few years, and the spaces between the individual trunks will fill in and smooth over with new bark. Your trees will look like a bundle of tied-up cornstalks for a while so be patient. In addition, this method consolidates plant material which would normally be grown in separate containers. I do not have the space to grow individual trees, so I needed to find a way to grow my fig trees in one container. Fuse-grafting to the rescue. Now I'll have three times the plant material growing in one place ... and maybe three times the figs too. I also like seeing trees with short, fat, trunks with lots of taper supporting a nice rack of ramified branchlets. More branches, more nodes, more nodes, more figs. This preference is a hold-over from my bonsai days. Large diameter trunks convey age and endurance. Exposed rootage does too. I like thinking outside the box. I know that this training method might be too unconventional for some, but I'm going to try it out to see how well it works...or, fails. Wintering-over will still be a problem for me. I have an unheated shed where I stored some fig trees over the winter '06. The trees did OK. I'm hoping for the same results with my new trees. I've also read that fig trees can be brought into a heated room to break dormancy about a month before they are ready to be grown outside. For my zone, this would probably be around mid, to late April. I'll try bringing my trees in on Tax Day and I'll put them outside around Mother's Day. I read that it takes about two weeks for dormancy to break and for buds to swell, and, at least another two weeks before the new leaves start suffer from low light. Any thoughts...pro or con?

pteroceltis, It looks like you have a bit more experience with this tree than I do. As you can see by my User Name, I'm a big fan of Acer griseum. Here's what I do know that may help you: Seeds: Most seeds contain an embryo and hardly any endosperm to speak of. Another plant that shares this characteristic is the orchid. Understanding how the orchid propagates naturally by seed, I think, can help us understand how griseum does as well. The orchid bursts out millions of dust-like seeds on the forest floor. Those that land on a specific fungi will find the nutrients necessary for the seed to germinate. On their own, they do not have the CHO or the proteins to create roots or shoots. Likewise, griseum needs a food-source for germination. Also, the casing is extremely hard and thick. Scarification really isn't enough. It's a wonder that the tree has made it this far in evolution. Forgive me if you don't believe in evolution. Whether we came from a similar ancestor as the monkey or not, plants do adapt over time, and natural selection does occur. Anyway, some propagators have had success using this understanding and have almost surgically removed the embryos and placed them in a nutrient-rich petri-dish. The embryo germinates and we have a new plant. Vegetative propagation: The general rule is, the younger the stem tissue, the more likely it will root. Seedling cuttings root pretty easily. But, seedlings are small and have very little stem to use. It's like a cycle: Take a seedling, cut it, root it, you now have another seedling. And, to get the original seedling, you have to get the seed to germinate. The trick we use is to almost force the well-established stock plant to succor: Hack it down low to the ground. Then, several immature stems come up. Then, use those to root. But, you have to let it grow green a little to continue to feed the roots. So, let one stem grow as a leader for the season. Ok, that's griseum. But, the other plant you mentioned was cappadocicum. I will not pretend to be an expert on this plant. I know that it is related to truncatum; which easily hybridizes with platanoides (Norway). Is Norway not an aggressive weed up in your part of the country? So, my assumption - and sorry this was so long - my assumption is that Forestfarm used cappadocicum as a rootstock because of it's aggressive tendencies to your area. But, it is not as aggressive as platanoides. So, you have a rootstock that will be extremely successful in your area with an ornamental top. Here's the concern: Maples are broken down into several groups. There really should be several genus' to break them down. Perhaps there will some day. For example, the Sugar Maple Group contains: Sugar, Silver, Red, Bigtooth Boxelder, Black, and some others. Japanese, for example, is not one of them. Nor is griseum. However, Boxelder is. Follow me here. The more related they are, the more compatible they are and the more likely the graft will take and last. I talked with a professor by e-mail at Penn State a few years ago. He was doing a test on graft compatibility of a Red scion and a Sugar stock. It looked successful for six years. During the seventh year, the graft split and the trees fell at the graft. I don't know if griseum and cappadocicum are in the same group or not. I don't believe they are. However, Boxelder is trifolate and is in the Sugar group. cappadocicum is almost a webbed palm. As far as maples go, there isn't a more entire leaf that I've seen. It's the flower, fruit and seed that determines the relatedness, not the leaf. So, I'd ask Forestfarm just how long this union has lasted in their experience. Just because it took in the greenhouse and lasted a few years at the farm, does not mean it will last for a lifetime in someone's landscape. I'm sorry if I confused or frustrated you. I just want you to understand why I would check with the grower their success on it. I'd hate your favorite tree to fall over one of the years during a wind storm. ericpaul