Whaddayaknow it took... Now what? (Apple root sucker graft)

[applestar]

So last year, I was messing around and tried grafting apple scions and T-buds. I tried T-budding onto some of the mature Enterprise branches and to some crabapple volunteers, and I also tried -- I think it's called slip grafting -- a scion to a root sucker/water sprout growing from the Enterprise root stock (Lopped off the water sprout, cut a vertical slit in it and wedged the scion in, lining up the bark cambium.)

None of the T-buds took, but to my surprise, the slip graft appears to have held. The scion grew last year, and this year, it looks like a whip growing up into the main tree's branches.

But now, the question -- is it possible to separate this water sprout from the main tree? It appears to be growing from the root almost two feet away from the base of the trunk.

If not, is it OK to let it grow like this?

Or should I just give myself a pat on the back and then chop it down?

[tomc]

If I'm understanding you; Howsabout air-layering enough below your graft, to permit a bit of trunk and the rootstock to form a diviedable tree?

As an aside:I bought some grafted trees that were prepped this year. They arrived with their top wood dipped in parafin. it was a much higher success rate than my thumb fingered attempts...

[applestar]

Hmm. OK. That's a whole another scary project.
But. I suppose if I'm willing to chop it down, it can't hurt (much).
When is a good time to do that?

...when I decided to try grafting, I initially made attempts with electrical tape since many people seem to use that with great success. But after several frustrating sessions, I wanted a better tool for the job, and bought a giant roll of wide parafilm-M. I cut it lengthwise for narrower tape as needed. When I was looking up avocado grafting, a lot of the videos showed them wrapping their scions and grafting sites completely in the parafilm so that's what I've been doing with all of them, not just avocados.

[applestar]

Well, I didn't do anything with this one because air-layering it was scary

It's taken off and had a leader that was about 8 ft tall this spring,so I topped it. Here it is now. I've been casually "training" it by bending the leader way down, as well as other shoots and branches down under the big tree's limbs


...hmmm studying the photo, that leader seems to have sprang back up again. I'll have to take care of that. Also, the zigzagging branch midway is coming from the big tree -- I should get rid of that. (Is it normal for apple branches and shoots to grow in the weirdest useless directions?)

Do you suppose I could keep it here?


The major limb above the little one is showing some damage that I'm a bit leery of -- don't know what that scraped up looking spot is. PLus it's growing in an entirely wrong direction, so I was thinking maybe I could cut that whole limb off -just to the right of the strong leader shoot of the graft at the bend- this winter....? Wouldn't that open up some sky for the grafted root sucker....




...yes, it about time for the July pruning of upward growing water sprouts and I really have to take care of those sucker clusters ...

[khoomeizhi]

this is the poster ordinarily known as !potatoes!, using this login until we figure out what's wrong that won't let some of us log in (see bugs thread in hoo-ha).

your description of the graft sounds like a whip-and-tongue graft. i don't think 'slip graft' is a thing. 'bark slip' or 'slipping' is regularly used, regarding how free the bark is to 'slip' away from the wood...i would expect something called a slip graft to involve some degree of bark-peeling. fwiw, (for future reference) i've always found chip budding to be much easier than t-budding, as far as bud grafting goes. better opportunities for cambial contact, imo.

yes, it's normal for some apples to grow in totally nonsensical (to us) directions.

if you plan on keeping the newly grafted bit in location, then yes, opening up the canopy will help it immensely.

[applestar]

Thanks, !potatoes! I really wasn't sure of the terminology. ha. I will look up chip budding and try it. I really want to learn to do this correctly.