Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
I was walking in my tree planting yesterday and took a few pictures of the graft unions of some trees that I topworked over the last 3 years. Most of them have healed over well and already closed the gaps. Below are a few examples:
This first one is where I converted a Callery Pear to a Hunter's Choice Pear. This tree has produced good crops the last two years.
The second one is a native male persimmon that I did a sex change operation on. You can still see a little swell at the graft union, but it is healed over completely. This tree had a bumper crop last year.
This is an interesting one. The original tree was a huge crabapple (with tiny apples) that I felt was too big to topwork. I don't think it could have ever healed over. I sawed the tree off at the groundline, and put a cage around the stump. When shoots started coming from around the stump, I cut all of them off but one and nurtured it to make a new small tree. Then I topworked it to a desirable variety. I'm expecting fruit from this one maybe next year.
This is another persimmon that I was worried about, because it was so big when topworked, I was afraid that it might not heal over well. However, it is now completely healed over and making big persimmon crops.
This is a non productive apple that has now been converted over to a Yates. I'm expecting a crop this year.
Here is another apple that lacks some time completely healing over. However, it isn't far away and may close the gap this growing season.
Here we see the agony of defeat, where my grafts failed to take on a persimmon tree. I really don't know why I failed on this one, but it obviously did. New limbs below my grafts have shot out now. I will let this tree grow another year and go back and try again.
This last one is where I ordered what was supposed to be a productive crabapple variety from a nursery, but it turned out to be an ornamental crab. I topworked it to a nice Dolgo variety that drops heavily in November, so in a couple of years, we should be good to go.
Just say no to non productive trees - topwork them and get what you need......
This first one is where I converted a Callery Pear to a Hunter's Choice Pear. This tree has produced good crops the last two years.
The second one is a native male persimmon that I did a sex change operation on. You can still see a little swell at the graft union, but it is healed over completely. This tree had a bumper crop last year.
This is an interesting one. The original tree was a huge crabapple (with tiny apples) that I felt was too big to topwork. I don't think it could have ever healed over. I sawed the tree off at the groundline, and put a cage around the stump. When shoots started coming from around the stump, I cut all of them off but one and nurtured it to make a new small tree. Then I topworked it to a desirable variety. I'm expecting fruit from this one maybe next year.
This is another persimmon that I was worried about, because it was so big when topworked, I was afraid that it might not heal over well. However, it is now completely healed over and making big persimmon crops.
This is a non productive apple that has now been converted over to a Yates. I'm expecting a crop this year.
Here is another apple that lacks some time completely healing over. However, it isn't far away and may close the gap this growing season.
Here we see the agony of defeat, where my grafts failed to take on a persimmon tree. I really don't know why I failed on this one, but it obviously did. New limbs below my grafts have shot out now. I will let this tree grow another year and go back and try again.
This last one is where I ordered what was supposed to be a productive crabapple variety from a nursery, but it turned out to be an ornamental crab. I topworked it to a nice Dolgo variety that drops heavily in November, so in a couple of years, we should be good to go.
Just say no to non productive trees - topwork them and get what you need......
