Hi, Scott, et al, In a different forum/thread, I posted the same question: i.e. do 4 saplings growing close form a single trunk of a solid single core or multiple cores, and 'Brandon6b' replied that, if this did happen, the core/tree-formed may rot. I hope this isn't the case: my reply..... That is very disappointing: that the rot will occur and sometimes will be the cause of premature tree death. In nature, I've seen enormous threes that seem to survive this natural arrangement, or maybe I'm not interpreting the observation correctly: there are 4+ large trunks that are growing so closely that, for the first few feet, the run in parallel contact with one another; maybe they are not 4 separate trees (of the same species and size) but 4 separate suckers coming from the same root system. Maybe a way out of this issue is to get this to happen early on: to arrange the 4 saplings (that are of 1" diameters or so) only 2" apart from each other; to me, it would seem that this would have to cause a single solid tree trunk of the 4. I hope I can figure this out soon, because the saplings are on their way in the mail and are bare root. Thanks, Steve

Hi Kelogs. Not to worry about your language abilities. You do quite well. Your understanding of cleft grafting is accurate- it is often done on trunks or branches that are almost just stumps. I had imagined a tree more like my apple: quite a few well-established branches that I intend to keep, and a few that I would like to shift over. In my particular case I will have better luck changing over the branches that are higher up in the tree because they will be less affected by hormones which the tips of branches secrete and which drain down the tree to inhibit competition. Since you will remove those higher branches they need not concern you. I did not appreciate how much of the tree you intended to remove. One approach that has worked for me is to work over two or three branches on a fairly young tree and work my way up the tree over a period of a few years to continue converting branches, but not the main trunk, to a variety of fruit. I keep most of the tree unchanged in any given year but change some part of it every year. If I have a variety down below that's appealing I cut scions from it and graft them onto the higher scaffolds. I obviously can't keep that up forever, but it is quite workable now. I simply keep the lower scaffolds if I like their fruit. Hope I didn't make this too confusing.

For commercial production I expect its pollination. There is a much bigger chance a variety will lose its pollinator and make it useless. I have a bunch of those I grafted myself. I have not had any problems with compatibility but some combos are supposed to be problematic. In particular Euro on Asian is more problematic than the other way. Most of mine are with both on rootstock but I also have some Asian on Euro that are doing well. One combo failed, Olympic on some Euro I don't remember now. I then put Olympic on a different Euro and its doing fine. Scott

its usually best to let manure age for a season or two .... to mellow out.. for lack of a better term .... i do NOT know if the alfalfa diet changes that ... if you can dig the hole... you can plant .. and frankly... i wouldnt amend much of anything ... but i might take out some of the chippings... if there are a lot ... but really ... its not like you had a 2 foot tree trunk removed ... how much chips can there be from a lilac??? if you need spare soil.. just bring in a wheelbarrow full from somewhere else in the yard ... and throw the chips i the manure pile ... and BTW ... when you have a huge old tree trunk ground out.. even if they go 8 to 12 inches deep.. frequently ... there is still unground wood down there.. and you couldnt dig.. so you couldnt plant ... finally ... lots of ground wood shavings ... use available nitrogen in the decomposition process ... and that is why.. when you see peeps trying to grow grass in the spot ... and it is very yellow .... and that would not necessarily be remedied the horse apples.. but the other stuff ... urea... that would be the remedy ... but you might find it very hard to do all that balancing with a new transplant ... hence the suggestion that you just bring in some unaffected soil from the 5 acres ... and do your fertilizing next year ... ken