In my zone if we can graft on chokecherry or anything that help on hardiness of the climate we will make a considarable step in the progress and this succes we badly need it because what is on the market is about all not made for in our place,fact is that the destruction of our trees by winter season breake the courage of many and teach to our children to keep away from it.This year was the worst winter season in 35 years and find something for our place is greatly necessary.I have made reaserch for what i say and the results of it are speaking.I bless every try or efforts that are made for even a drop to success in giving possibility to fruit trees to stay here alive adding lot of hapiness to many homes....

Wow, very helpful! Fruitnut, you say to remove the "overly thick" and 20% of the larger branches. I know it's a dumb question, but how do I decide what overly thick and "larger" means? Harvestman, your explanation was definitely helpful! Let me ask this: if I let some of the tall vertical growth keep growing, will those bear fruit? I read that fruit only came on the more horizontal ones, but there appear to be flower buds galore on even the tall, straight, thin ones this year (though last year there were only leaves). And yes, it's grown out of the bottom of the barrel and into the cobblestones! They are 150 year old cobblestones, and there's about 3/4 inch in between each one, so there's room there... I forgot to add one fascinating fact (and question!!). That thick, low branch that grows out the right side there--that's a grafted peach branch! It didn't do too well. TONS of peaches, none of which were edible. They made the branch way too heavy, never got enough sun, the branch is smashing into the fence (and most of the fruit only grew on the end there, and they were diseased. I have NO idea what to do with that!!! Suggestions?? Because of space constraints and b/c it has grown to reach so far out beyond what it can handle in weight, I obviously need to prune it pretty dramatically. But the amt. that I figure I need to prune (to stop it from growing into the fence anymore) would basically cut back all of the vegetation and fruit. Should I do that?? THANK YOU!!!

I'm on the border between 6 and 7 and have also had a colder than normal spring. I've been grafting a lot this spring, much of it in the 2nd week of April, about a month ago. New rootstocks seem to be much harder to succeed with, than top-working existing trees. Last year (in my first year of grafting), I got takes only 2 of 13 new rootstocks. Of course, 1 was then killed over the winter. It is good that I also used most of the wood in top-working a tree. I think one of the main issues is that as soon as I grafted, I potted up the rootstock and put it in the yard. This year, I've gotten much better results with: a.) Immediately potting up the rootstock, then moving it to a humidified, pretty dark (North facing window) room for 2 weeks, before moving it to a bright room (South facing double doors). 3 of 4 takes and I'm optimistic about the 4th, as it is notoriously slow to get started (Court Pendu Rose). b.) The other approach I took is to packed the grafted rootstocks back up in plastic, with the roots in moist, shredded paper and put it all in a 5 gallon bucket. I put the bucket into the humidified dark room for about a week, then planted them outside. So far, 3 for 5, but the other two don't look bad and I'll give them some more time. It is also possible that my technique has improved a bit- the only way it could get worse is if I cut myself more :) But, poor skills and all, top-working still did OK last year. This year, the apple top-works I did in the same general time-frame are 12/16, so far. Pears are even easier- I'm 8 for 9 on top-working them this year. The only failure is described in my notes as "ugly graft". I even had 2 interstem grafts take on potted quince rootstocks (grafting a Magness interstem and the scion at the same time) I really like Marknmt's idea of the notching to help the graft along (in a top-working scenario where the graft isn't at the absolute top of the tree). I've heard of the idea to generate branches, but it makes sense that you could apply it to getting some growth from a grafted bud.

Some may be propagated by cuttings, but it's clear that this one was grafted (or budded which is a type of graft). The swollen portion below the trunk and above the rootstock indicates the place where this was done.