Young apple trees

[Hereford fruit grower]

Hello, calling any fruit tree experts ... I'd like a 2nd opinion on the normal success rate of grafted apple trees, i.e. young trees which one buys in early April after the graft has been done and from which one removes the tape after all is well (but in my case all was not well ...).

I bought approx 14 in 2018 for £10 ea plus postage and five grafts failed, i.e. I still have five M9 rootstocks in the ground but no scions. Nine varieties are growing OK and starting to crop.

Is 35% or so a normal failure rate? If it's unreasonably high, at 2018 prices it would have been cheaper to much cheaper to buy maiden trees from a normal supplier. They'd have been a year older, as well.

I did this because I wanted some fairly 'non-commercial' varieties including Ribston Pippin, Ashmead's Kernel and Annie Elizabeth. However, these are available from mail order suppliers.

NB prices have gone up quite a lot since 2018. I'm referring to retail prices then not now.

[burnie]

My limited apple tree growing has seen the grafts work fine and the trees prospered, it was disease in particular canker that has seen me give up on growing apples later on in the trees life.

[Dave8abond]

That sounds like a high failure rate for apples. I've only had one graft fail out of over 30+ grafts and it was because I accidentally stuck it it a pot that had no drainage holes and so the roots rotted. Doh.

I wonder if, during delivery, the grafts were knocked out of alignment before callusing thus causing the grafts to fail?

[FB.]

I would expect 9/10 grafts to succeed.
However, as mentioned by another poster above, is it possible that the freshly-done grafts were knocked out of alignment during transport or planting which affected the success rate?

Some scions and some rootstocks don't thrive together (incompatible, partially incompatible, or either scion or rootstock has a virus which affects the other part).
Some old trees don't have much life in them or are infected by many viruses and grafts can fail. This seems to be more common with unusual varieties probably due to very few trees remaining to provide healthy scion wood.

Interestingly, I've found that MM111 rootstock seems to have more than its fair share of young trees fail to thrive (graft succeeds but tree doesn't grow after a year or two) than, say, M25 or MM106 rootstock.

[FB.]

....... I still have five M9 rootstocks in the ground but no scions.....

If the rootstock is still alive, why not try re-grafting them?
Why not tell the company who grafted them for you that the grafts failed and would they send you a few pieces of scion wood so you can try again?