Another Ebay Special

[nickdub]

I was idly wondering the other day about different apple varieties and I thought I'd have a look for Pitmaston Pineapple . I found someone on Ebay offering "Scion Wood For Grafting - Many Apple and Pear Tree" who had it among the varieties on offer - so I thought "why not" and stumped up £4 ( half for p &p) on Tuesday.

Yesterday I thought I'd better try to get my hand in a bit - my success rate with grafting is roughly 50%, which would be laughably poor by professional standards but as I normally graft from my own tree varieties I can just do loads.. So I found my raffia, a container of grafting wax (approx 25 years old), an old carpenters glue pot, which I use for melting the wax, a small paint brush for applying it and sharpened my pruning knife. I did a few plums and an apple, making as good a job as my skill level allows .

Much to my surprise the Ebay order rocked up today - quite well packed in damp paper two scions each about 8" long and a bit thinner than a pencil. Duly got two whip and tongues grafted on and as they were quite long I cut the tops off and used those in a cleft graft ( the easiest one I reckon) .

So we shall see - the scions were showing nice and green at the cambium layer, if they don't take it will be down to my poor technique I reckon.

[Lardman]

Were they from the place selling red fleshed apples ? I've had a few scions from them over the years and some have been painfully thin. If you'd have said I could have sorted you out some pitmaston pineapple

I find the whip and tongue the easiest if the scion and rootstock are the same thickness and around pencil size, something I don't seem to be able to get very often. Most of the time I'm trying to graft something akin to a hair into a telegraph pole or at least it feels that way, and I resort to clefts.

50% isn't bad I'm 7% grafting plums and I don't even know which variety succeeded.

[nickdub]

Hi Lardman,
That's a kind thought -as it is I was just giving the place a try, as they seem to have a very long list of varieties - so might be handy for hard to find cultivars.

Not sur eif we are supposed to put links on here so for anyone wanting to find the same supplier I'd say try putting "Scion Wood For Grafting - Many Apple and Pear Tree " in the Ebay search and I'd expect the same one to come up £2 a throw + £2 p&p - must have them store din a fridge I suppose otherwise the turn round time would be longer.

Talking about failure rates, I tried some plum grafts last year using just electrical insulation tape as binding mostly out of interest and got about one take out of 12 or so - mind you we had that v hot spell just after and I reckon some of the losses were down to being cooked.

All the best, Nick

[Lardman]

Looks like you used a different supplier, a search for

"Scion Cider Apples pears plums peaches apricot nectarine Grafting 800 different"

Should bring the one up I was referring to. Huge selection, including the hard to find American apples. Although the scions were for the more experience grafter so far everything has come true to type as far as I can tell.

Must resist ordering some more !

[It never rains..it pours]

Agree this is a very addictive hobby, adding new varieties to existing trees. However no doubt my failure rate, which will make 7% success look professional, will temper that. Only concern I thought of was disease transfer risk from unknown ebay sources

[nickdub]

Agree this is a very addictive hobby, adding new varieties to existing trees. However no doubt my failure rate, which will make 7% success look professional, will temper that. Only concern I thought of was disease transfer risk from unknown ebay sources

I wouldn't have thought that scions from an Ebay seller were any more liable to have a disease than already grafted trees. That said I wouldn't try grafting them on to a tree which was the only one I had of a variety.

As it is I bought 5 coxes on MM106 back when I knew a lot less about fruit growing than I do now - so mostly when I get something new to try I lop off the end of one of the branches on one of these and use that as a start.

[Lardman]

However no doubt my failure rate, which will make 7% success look professional, will temper that.

You're going to be eaten those words when every apple you've grafted takes and you have far too many trees

Only concern I thought of was disease transfer risk from unknown ebay sources

I have a small nursery bed I put new stuff into as I've not normally had chance to taste the fruit. I let them grow out there for a few years, this allows me to check if I like the fruit and ensure the tree is healthy. I can then either take scion wood or transplant.