Grafting to save trees.

[beastmaster]

I recently got a hold of this old book on grafting. They do some amazing things. There are pictures of trees that have been girdled by animals and fungus where they have grafted pieces of branches over the affected area so the tree could survive. They graft roots from a living near by healthy tree to a declining tree to rejuvenate it. Branch support was another interesting method, using live branches instead of cables for support. They wrap a small branch around the one being in need of support grafting branch to branch.
All these were fruit trees, but I don't see why they wouldn't work with other trees. There is a technic where they wrap a long supple branch around a limb where all the branches are removed, to interduce a different variety of fruit. This would work great on liontailed trees I bet.
Maybe these old technics used back in the day could be modernize for today, or are they and I just don't know about it? I have a few times over the years on big cross over branches that were rubbing remove the bark, exposing the Cambrian and bolting them together in hopes they'll grow together. I never followed them up though. Very interesting book.

 

[imagineero]

I recently got a hold of this old book on grafting. They do some amazing things. There are pictures of trees that have been girdled by animals and fungus where they have grafted pieces of branches over the affected area so the tree could survive. They graft roots from a living near by healthy tree to a declining tree to rejuvenate it. Branch support was another interesting method, using live branches instead of cables for support. They wrap a small branch around the one being in need of support grafting branch to branch.
All these were fruit trees, but I don't see why they wouldn't work with other trees. There is a technic where they wrap a long supple branch around a limb where all the branches are removed, to interduce a different variety of fruit. This would work great on liontailed trees I bet.
Maybe these old technics used back in the day could be modernize for today, or are they and I just don't know about it? I have a few times over the years on big cross over branches that were rubbing remove the bark, exposing the Cambrian and bolting them together in hopes they'll grow together. I never followed them up though. Very interesting book.

Fruit grafting is pretty advanced compared with grafting other types of trees, in terms of the skills and techniques they use. I think a lot of the techniques wouldn't translate so well to canopy trees just because the forces involved are exponentially larger - both weight and sail area. Grafting to rejuvenate trees in decline sounds like a bit of a band aid honestly. Aerial layering is a popular method for propagating some trees, and I guess it might work if animals had stripped the trees of bark. I always thought girdling was where a tree strangled itself with its own roots, or had its cambium severed by growing around a ring in a similar fashion.

People don't think so much about the connection between roots and canopy. When transplanting large trees, retaining enough root mass can be a problem which is known well enough, but the reverse is true too; if a tree has too much canopy removed, you really ought to do some root pruning too, or the canopy won't be able to supply enough nutrients to them. Like wise, tress that have their root growth restricted by use of barriers will have their growth restricted too, effectively dwarfing them.

If you really want to keep a declibing tree there's a lot you can do but it starts getting very expensive. There's a lot of experimental stuff you could to too. Some epiphytes co exist with their hosts in a symbiotic relationship which may help a declining tree... some types of moulds in root systems can benefit a plant too.

So many things are possible, but not very practical. People don't generally have the $$$ to spend on playing around with their trees, and I think that's a good thing. They're best left alone. Look at the mess we've made of fruit and veg; loss of diversity, GM crops, chemicals everywhere, over growing, seed bank loss etc etc.

Shaun

 

[derwoodii]

Bark grafting to save a ringbarked car vs tree is sumthin I tried yonks ago it failed but no loss just had to try. I sliced off fresh bark sections from upper limbs and notched them to connect the 2 parts of cleaned up trunk cambium & wound painted with arb seal 'them wus thee days' i shoulda used a propagation cutting hormone swab none in me kit on the day.


I wonder if this is what they did here, to me the wound wus not that deep so sealing cambian can bubble up and out from intact parts
Police probe 'sickening' attack on historic tree - Just In - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 2 years ago I need to git back see how this tree is recovering may just phonel the garden arb bloke ask him save me a trip.

we git lots of crossing limb grafts on smooth bark gums, I just need to find them git a picture

 

[sgreanbeans]

One of my mentors owns a hi end nursery center here locally, Wallaces Garden Center. Doug the owner, is a botanist and a has these little apple trees at his pad on the river. He has 5 or 6 different types of apples growing off the same tree, last time I talked to him, he was going to try a orange! Pretty freaking cool, he pollards them to keep them sized and they produce some huge apples!

 

[beastmaster]

Yeah in most cases it's not practical I admit, and your dealing with a lot of different parameters if you try it on big trees no doubt, but it might be cool to attempt some time none the less.
I don't have a scanner so I took some pictures from the book with my phone of an apple tree girdled by rabbits, using bridging grafts. The photos are 6 years and 30 years after the graft was done.View attachment 257620View attachment 257621

There's another set of pictures in the book that shows an Oak(quercus robur) that was completely girdled by vandals about 4 in. around. They used young oak scion bark and,"veneer grafted", then nailed and sealed them.
I'm going to go graft something.

 

[imagineero]

One of my mentors owns a hi end nursery center here locally, Wallaces Garden Center. Doug the owner, is a botanist and a has these little apple trees at his pad on the river. He has 5 or 6 different types of apples growing off the same tree, last time I talked to him, he was going to try a orange! Pretty freaking cool, he pollards them to keep them sized and they produce some huge apples!

That's nothing too unusual.... I don't know what the states is like, but in aus grafted fruit trees are pretty much the norm. Different scions are grafted on to locally adapted root stocks to create hard trees that produce well. Grafting an orange onto an apple isn't going to work, but having 3 types of citrus on the one tree is pretty common. I've seen heaps of lemon/lime/orange trees around. They're more of a gimmick than anything though, you obviously wouldn't use anything like that in a commercial environment.

Have you done any wound tracing? It's a useful skill to have and sort of in the same area...

Shaun

 

[beastmaster]

One of my mentors owns a hi end nursery center here locally, Wallaces Garden Center. Doug the owner, is a botanist and a has these little apple trees at his pad on the river. He has 5 or 6 different types of apples growing off the same tree, last time I talked to him, he was going to try a orange! Pretty freaking cool, he pollards them to keep them sized and they produce some huge apples!

I'v seen fruit trees like that for sale. They were calling them fruit salad trees.

 

[sgreanbeans]

I have done it once, a big nice oak next to new construction was hit a couple times with a excavator, tearing at the bark, traced the whole wound. Went back to check it and the tree was gone! Guess it didnt help,lol. They decided to loose the tree, laborer told me the operator kept hitting it after I left and the builder was pissed about all the damage so he made them take it out and pay for a new tree. So I have no idea if it would have done anything.

Salad tree....awesome. I am going to try and "air graft" a epi off of my little honey locust. I think it is called air graft.

 

[imagineero]

Salad tree....awesome. I am going to try and "air graft" a epi off of my little honey locust. I think it is called air graft.

Air layering?

 

[sgreanbeans]

Yep, thanks,LOL, watched that little vid, thought it was cool, going to try it.

 

[imagineero]

I bet 'companion planting' is something you'd get right into too, if you haven't already. Thats a whole world right there.

 

[treeseer]

bm what is the name of that book again? :msp_confused:

 

[beastmaster]

The Grafter's Handbook. R.J. Garner
published in association with The Royal Horticultural Society

 

[treeclimber101]

We used to graft weeping cherry with a upright variety pretty regularly but they are always weak at the graft and typically grafted trees have a limited life span , I did see a Alberta spruce with a Norway graft recently it was a perfectly shaped Alberta , with a single part of weeping Norway quite different . Grafted fruit trees get huge burl type growths for some reason and more like sappy cankers , to me it seems that the canopy can't keep up with the roots and trunks .

 

[treeman75]

The other day we were pruning some aussie trees and seen a smaller limb grown into one of the leads. I see a few of those a year mostly on silver maples. I left it knowing it will help hold the tree together.

 

[Toddppm]

We used to graft weeping cherry with a upright variety pretty regularly but they are always weak at the graft and typically grafted trees have a limited life span , I did see a Alberta spruce with a Norway graft recently it was a perfectly shaped Alberta , with a single part of weeping Norway quite different . Grafted fruit trees get huge burl type growths for some reason and more like sappy cankers , to me it seems that the canopy can't keep up with the roots and trunks .

Have seen a bunch of Alberta Spruce with big Norway or whatever regular kind of spruce limb growing out the side. Ran into the this Cherry in the spring with the rootstock taking over 1/2 the tree.

 

[Treewound]

Our company has been manufacturing Grafting Wax since 1885. the comment from "Sgreanbeans" is absolutely correct, you can not graft an Orange to an apple. I would also agree with the comments about larger tree grafts, while in theory it should work there are much more stress on the grafted area, both from the size and weight of larger grafting stock, but also from the natural :needs" of the larger scion/stock.
Bridge and in-arching grafts are great methods for repairing trees that have been girdled.
The grafting of fruit trees was also mentioned and in fact nearly all fruit trees and most grape vines are grafted in order to maintain the hybrid. If you plant a seed from a Red Delicious apple for example, the apples from the resulting tree will not be red delicious. They may be close,but they may not be close at all! If you look at the base of an apple tree (or any other fruit tree) at a nursery you will notice a "crook" near the base. This is because the tree was grown to where the root stock was at the desired size and then usually two "scions" of the desired species of apple were grafted to the root stock. After the grafts have "taken" (if both grafts "take") the weaker of the two is removed and the tree will now grow the desired apple that was chosen. Sometimes fruit growers will actually change over an established orchard from one species of apple that may have lost popularity to a different variety that is new or become more popular. (This is not limted to apples)

 

[treeclimber101]

Where did the pink lady apple come from ? Because my wife and daughter love the m and I have never seen them around here ! Just kinda curious about how they came about , and they have a granny smith taste but perfect pink color , and they stay longer . I wanna do a graft of a blue atlas and a weeping norway .

 

[Treewound]

The Pink Lady was developed in Australia in 1979 (didn't know, looked it up!). It is a cross of Gloden Delcious and Lady Williams.

 

[Youngbuck20]

Wouldnt wrapping a branch around another girdle it and kill it??