1st ever Plum Graft has taken - now what do I do?

[Printemps]

On 21st April I joined a group of like-minded gardeners who wanted to learn how to graft fruit trees. With an abundance of plasters at hand, we set to practising various techniques before being allowed near the rootstocks!

Against all the odds, it looks like one of my two grafts (on the same rootstock) has taken!

I haven't a clue what type of graft it is, except to say the scion is a very rare French plum which is now growing on a St Junien rootstock. I only spotted the green bud a couple of days ago, but I don't know what I should do next. I feel that the new bud deserves the energy of the growing rootstock, but when do I sever this year's actively growing branch?

[scarey55]

No idea about what you can do graft wise, I'm afraid but well done on getting it this far.

I have deleted the post that I think is duplicated but if it is the wrong one, let me know and I can put it back for you

[Printemps]

Thanks for deleting the duplicated posting so quickly!

[orangepippin]

What is the rare scion variety?

[Printemps]

I don't remember!!!!

That said, I'm going to try to get in touch with the neighbour of the enthusiastic French gentleman who was our 'how-to-graft' teacher by way of letting him know of my success and to find out the name of the scion. Give me a few days orangepippin and I'll get back to you.

[orangepippin]

I'm interested to find out what it is!

[boundtothesoil]

Against all the odds, it looks like one of my two grafts (on the same rootstock) has taken!
...... I feel that the new bud deserves the energy of the growing rootstock, but when do I sever this year's actively growing branch?

I only have limited experience with plum grafts, and I'm not quite clear about the arrangement of your grafts from the photo. I guess that the one that has 'taken' is the one with the green bud on the left hand side of the scion. But is the second scion to the left of this one, and emerging from the same taped union? If so, is it dead?

Regarding your 'taken' graft I would say that it is a bit early to remove the entire root stock shoot. From the photo this looks pretty big at a foot or more in length? If it were mine, I'd wait until you've got at least a couple of inches of scion shoot/leaf growth, then I'd cut the root stock shoot back by two-thirds, then take the rest out if the scion growth really takes off, later in the season.

I've only ever (saddle) grafted varieties that grow like stink on St Julian A stock and I never leave a parallel shoot belonging to the root-stock, so I've not run into your situation. The only root-stock shoot growth I have to deal with takes place below the graft union, and is pretty small scale.

I definitely wouldn't cut the tape round the union until the scion has grown several inches. I don't know what type of graft you've performed, but if the other scion is 'dead' and meets the rootstock in the same region as your live scion, it might be a bit of a mess and, arguably, the scar might need sealing.

[Printemps]

. . . I guess that the one that has 'taken' is the one with the green bud on the left hand side of the scion. But is the second scion to the left of this one, and emerging from the same taped union? If so, is it dead?

I would imagine it is as there is no sign of the bud swelling. Mind you, there is a bud below the one that is green (it's since produced two little leaves) and that shows no sign of life either. Would you know whether that is normal, ie if one bud takes then any remaining ones don't.

Thank you for advising when and how much rootstock to cut out, as this was my principle query, but I feel a lot happier to manage it in the manner suggested.

I recall being told it was a 'bark graft', or rather that was the agreed translated name. It resembles budding a rose, in that the bark is split vertically and carefully peeled back, the chamfered scion is then placed in the vertical slit, bound with a cut elastic band, followed by a coating of paraffin wax. It was suggested we tried two bark grafts as our instructor wasn't too happy with the condition of some of the scions. These grafts were made on 21st April, which was considered rather late for our location/climate, so I'm happy that even one took.

I did wonder what to do with the dead graft, as you say it's likely to look rather untidy, but I'll worry about it when the time comes.

Thank you so much for your enlightening post.