Chip budding apple trees- advice needed

[bensira]

I'd like to graft some bud wood onto some apple trees. If anybody could give some advice, I'd be grateful.

As it's the end of May, I understand that chip budding is the technique to employ at this time of year*. I live in the UK, and my family live in Ireland. In Ireland, there are five young crab apple trees (three or four years old) and two really old apple trees of an unknown variety - cooking apples of some sort. These trees could be anything from 100 to 40 years old, they're in an old unloved orchard and there's no way for me to find out when they were planted. The apples they produce are not good for eating, and have only been used for cooking up to now (they look like bramleys). I'll try them in a cider (and maybe a cider brandy) later in the year.

I've just taken a trip to Devon and Somerset in the the UK, visited some cider orchards and managed to get some bud wood from some cider apple trees. I've cut off the leaves and put the bud wood in the fridge. I'm going to Ireland in ten days, and will try grafting the bud wood onto some of the trees back home. I understand that budwood doesn't survive long, so might not survive the two weeks in my fridge to be useful, however I'm willing to take the chance. If it doesn't work, I can try scion grafting in the winter. Is it possible/feasible to chip bud onto a very old tree? How many chip buds can be added to a small crab apple tree?

I can't find much info online on bud grafting (as opposed to winter grafting). I've looked at this guy's videos and found them very useful. If anyone has any advice, I'd be grateful.

*https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=400

 

[WVMJ]

Total amateur here, chip budded last July and it worked great, had some budwood shipped to us thru Fedex and it worked just fine. There are a lot of chip budding videos and good ag extension sites out there plus you found fruitwise.net which is always a good source. I have wondered why they dont chip bud in the spring with dormant buds vs using mature buds in the late summer that wont start growing until the next spring? It sounds like you are about to get a lot of practice making chip budding cuts that are not going to work, might the time be better spent pruning the trees to shape aiming at making a few of the limbs perfect to chip onto, like clipping off a nice area to chip onto on the limbs, thinning them out, selecting a nursery branch to keep the tree going while your chips are starting out next summer? WVMJ

 

[bensira]

Out of interest, do you know how long budwood is likely to last for if stored correctly? Mine will be about two weeks between coming from one tree and being grafted onto the other. I've found loads of places which will supply scion wood up to February/March time, but nowhere to get budwood commercially after that time. I wonder if it's because the budwood doesn't have a long enough shelf life?

The crab apple trees definitely need to be pruned quite badly. I don't think they've ever been pruned and they've certainly never borne fruit. There are far too many branches in far too little space. However, everything I've read so far led me to believe that pruning had to be done in the winter time when the tree is dormant. I didn't think I could do it during the summer without damaging the trees.

After a cursory look on google just now, I found two articles on summer pruning (this and this), however both articles refer to espaliers, I'm not sure the guidance applies to normal unshaped trees.

However, if you do have any links on summer pruning and when it's appropriate - especially for a young and neglected tree - I'd be grateful to read them. Could I chip bud and prune at the same time? It seems a shame to waste the bud wood I collected.

 

[MindenMan]

If you will go to Google U.S., there is a ton of info available. Try this page:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=chip+budding+apple+trees+

 

[WVMJ]

Total amateur me, but it seems like your budwood doesnt have mature buds on it so your timing is off. Some prep of the trees would be a better use of your time instead of doing a bunch of chipping which hasnt much of a chance of sucess. You can summer prune apples, thin out some branches, figure out where you want to chip onto and clean those areas up, get some light getting into the tree. Last year I cut a tree down that got just about every apple disease in the world and had horrible apples, it sent out lots of regrowth, we just went in last week and thinned out the growth we dont want to encourage the branches we do want to continue growing, probably going to cleft graft them with something very disease resistant to give it a chance to grow well. Whoever gave you budwood now, do they not know anything about chipping or did you just talk them into giving you some to try? WVMJ

 

[bensira]

I took your advice and didn't do the chip budding. Instead I took the cuttings dipped them in rooting agent and put them in some soil under a bag in the greenhouse. Some of them are sprouting buds, but it will take a while until I know whether that's just the latent energy in the cuttings or whether any will take root. I'm not holding out too much hope, but it would be amazing to see one of them take.

In the meantime, I've resolved to plant a Dabinett and a Yarlington Mill on a vigorous rootstock in the winter.