How to plant an apple tree

In general, vaccination today can hardly be called a procedure that is absolutely necessary for a gardener to carry out. But, one way or another, thanks to vaccination, he can get several positive effects at once. The first of them is that on the same tree, you can form a crop from different varieties of apples. The second effect is to save space on the garden plot, especially if it does not exceed ten acres, and at the same time the gardener would like to try to get a variety of apple varieties.
To date, gardeners have bred several types of vaccinations at once. Each of them is not so difficult to learn, but for this it is still worth knowing about some of the most basic rules, as well as about what time is optimal for performing vaccination work. In this article, we will tell you how to correctly graft an apple tree and dwell on what purpose it has, and what types of vaccination work exist today. This article will be especially useful and interesting for novice gardeners.

Vaccination purpose and basic terms

Graft Is one of the well-known and proven breeding methods that allows the gardener to manually change the appearance and general condition of the tree, depending on his own interests and goals. Before you begin to study the general method of grafting crops, you need to understand what its benefits are, and how it is so useful for an apple crop.

Firstly, thanks to the twigs that take root to the tree, as well as with the help of the implanted buds, you can give the old deer a second youth. In addition, grafting helps to increase the amount of the crop, which also plays a very important and significant role in this activity. Thanks to this method, gardeners can preserve even the rarest species of trees or just those trees that have been loved for so long, but tend to become obsolete.

Secondly, if the gardener grafts correctly, in accordance with all agrotechnical requirements and conditions, then an excellent tree crown can also form. If the apple variety is distinguished by such a property as tallness, then the plant can be grafted onto a dwarf or semi-dwarf stock, making it more squat. Thus, it will be much easier to care for it, and it will be easier to harvest the resulting crop from the crown.

Thirdly, if a gardener has a family, then family members may have completely different taste preferences, if we talk directly about the apple culture. Therefore, it is possible to grow apples of various varieties on the same tree, and this is thanks to the grafting. Moreover, you can also select apple varieties in this way so that they will ripen at different times of the year. In this way, a continuous fruitful tree can be made. Fruiting will be carried out first in early varieties, and then later. Agree, this is really very unusual and, most importantly, in addition to the exotic, it is also very effective, so the gardener will definitely want to try some of the delights of grafting apple crops.

Thanks to the grafting, it is possible to save those trees that have received certain injuries and now need to be restored. In general, thanks to grafting, you can also accelerate fruiting and get the first harvest already in the third or fourth year after planting the seedling in open ground. For comparison, ungrafted trees are harvested around the fifth or sixth year after planting, so speeding up the time by almost half is a really great indicator that many gardeners, gardeners and farmers who grow apples in more extensive industrial volumes and scales.

At the same time, it is worth paying attention to some terminology, which will greatly help the gardener to better understand how to vaccinate, in what order to carry out this process.In particular, knowledge of the terminology will be required for a gardener who has not yet had experience in vaccination, but can now do it quite successfully if he knows the basic terms.

Graft - this is the material that is withdrawn from the plant. In the future, the scion will already take root in another plant or shrub culture. As a scion, you can use buds and cuttings, shoots or part of a young twig. The second term is rootstock. Rootstock - this is a tree or shrub culture, to which the scion takes root. Copulation Is the process of graft engraftment. For copulation, cuttings or other materials are just needed, which are used to implement the scion to the stock. Budding Is a way that the grower will be able to change the quality of the rootstock in the future. By budding, several scions with completely different characteristics, flowering characteristics, and fruiting period can be implanted to the stock. Thanks to this, it is possible to make a tree that will be whole and fully satisfy all the needs of a gardener in a particular crop with certain characteristics and properties.

Is it possible to plant an apple tree - the choice of the season for vaccination and work requirements

A gardener can be grafted throughout the year, but at the same time, each apple variety can have its own vegetative characteristics and properties, so for each season it is worth considering some recommendations and requirements. If you follow them, you can get an excellent and very tasty harvest from a grafted tree.

Winter grafting should be done in warm weather. For example, it is best to plant trees in a warm room if the winter is too harsh. In this regard, winter grafting often bears another name - desktop, since the gardener carries out it in warm and comfortable conditions for himself. Winter grafting can be especially important for younger, juvenile plants that will be planted outdoors in the spring. In order to carry out the correct winter vaccination, you should pay attention to some basic rules and conditions:

- the best vaccination is prescribed in the period from January to March

- the plant should never be grafted less than two weeks before the seedling is placed in open ground. During this time, he simply will not have time to adapt to the vaccination, which will lead to the fact that the tree will not get used to the conditions, and the consequences can be completely negative.

- the scion should be removed from the donor at a fairly comfortable temperature - about +8 degrees, sometimes even higher. At the same time, this should be done before too strong frosts come, otherwise the donor tree will experience stress

- until the moment of grafting, the scion, as well as the rootstock - both elements must be stored at a temperature of about zero degrees, not higher or lower, this is a very significant requirement

- about 14 days before the inoculation procedure is carried out, the stock should be transferred to a warmer room so that the bush begins to gradually adapt and wake up there

- the stock is transferred to a warm room about three days before all the necessary grafting work begins

- when the plant has already been grafted, then before planting in open ground, it must be stored in a warm room at a positive air temperature. In general, as more experienced gardeners say, winter grafting is quite troublesome and can cause some difficulties and problems for the gardener.

But if these are gardeners with experience, then they still transfer the graft to another season of the year, because the chances that the vaccination will be more successful become much higher.

Fall grafting is the next species we'll look at in this article.In the fall, the gardener actively prepares crops for winter, therefore, in the same period, there is a noticeable slowdown in sap flow in the culture. Therefore, not all gardeners recommend grafting apple trees at this time. But at the same time, it will rather be a forced vaccination than a necessary one, since there can be a really huge number of reasons. Autumn grafting is carried out only in cases where the gardener has grafts of a very rare variety, and at the same time it is almost impossible to keep them until the next season, and they need to be grafted almost immediately. Several basic rules for the autumn grafting of apple trees are highlighted, which must be taken into account, since they are really very significant for the general health and future development of crops. So, the vaccination should be carried out in warm and completely calm, calm weather. From the beginning of September, budding will most likely be the best way of grafting, but here you should look at the situation and focus primarily on the weather and climatic conditions in the region where the apple variety is grafted. The third condition is that until mid-autumn the apple tree can be grafted in such ways, which are called "for the bark" and "in the split." During vaccination, the temperature should be at least -15 degrees, otherwise there will be absolutely no common sense in the vaccination, because the tree can survive these manipulations, but the scion will not. One way or another, there are chances of survival, but they are much higher in young rootstocks than in those rootstocks that are already aged, and they needed the vaccine to prolong youth and fruiting.

Summer is a great time to vaccinate the scion. Plants perfectly tolerate grafting and any other manipulations, but there are still several conditions. So, it is desirable to carry out the summer vaccination, starting from the second period of sap flow. This means that the first decade of August is ideal for the gardener to graft the tree and get a really excellent, close to ideal result. In regions where the climate is warm and stable, this time is ideal for budding with the so-called "sleeping" eye. You can also use other methods of grafting a plant, this is not prohibited, and in general, plants survive these manipulations perfectly, completely without experiencing certain difficulties that may arise.

Spring is perhaps the best time to graft an apple tree. Moreover, this applies not only to the apple crop, but in general to many other fruit trees and bushes. At the very beginning of the spring season, the trees wake up, an active process of sap flow begins, immunity and stress resistance are also at their maximum, especially if the gardener provides the plants with all the necessary conditions and care measures that they need so much during the period of growth and development. If all this is observed, then the processes of restoring the tree after the scion, as well as its healing, will take place without complications and any difficulties in principle. Moreover, this applies not only to bushes and trees that have become rootstocks, but also to those bushes and trees that have become donors for the culture and which have also been interfered with.

There are gardeners who, in their gardening activities, are particularly guided by the indicators of the lunar calendars. In this regard, the most successful time when it is possible to carry out various procedures and manipulations with plants is the period of the growing moon. But here, too, you should be guided by many other factors - the apple variety, climatic and weather conditions, the nature of the soil, the method of grafting. Only in the general aggregate can you choose the ideal time for the scion, and get a really decent, sometimes amazing result.Novice gardeners need to get acquainted with a lot of information, consult with experienced gardeners and farmers about the scion of certain varieties of apple trees.

Of course, you should also pay attention to a couple of rules that are important when carrying out spring grafting:

- the air temperature should be only a positive value, not lower than 10 degrees. The weather should be calm, calm, cloudy is allowed.

- it is best to carry out the scion either in the morning, or already transfer this procedure to the evening. During the day, the sun may be too strong, which affects the general condition of both the scion and the rootstock, the tree can be stressed, so it is recommended to choose calm, warm and slightly cool moments.

Some tools are needed for the scion and rootstock. Perhaps they are in the arsenal of almost every gardener, it is recommended to disinfect and disinfect them before work. Among these tools are a knife with a short but highly sharpened blade, grafting and budding knives, and a hacksaw for wood (or pruning shears if the scion is not too powerful and thick). The most important thing is not to allow the scion to break off or roughly break off, the cut must be neat and clean.

You can buy the so-called grafting secateurs in specialized stores. Its advantages are as follows.
Firstly, it can injure both the donor and the scion much less than it usually happens if you use a simple pruner.
Secondly, thanks to a special pruner, you can make not even, but curly cuts, and in such a way that the joints have an ideal shape that suits each other, and this can really greatly speed up the process of grafting and engraftment.
Thirdly, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the grafting pruner will be incredibly useful if the gardener needs to achieve thin and accurate cuts just for budding. In this case, the chances of the plant are significantly increased, which plays a very large and very serious role in the health of the tree.

Today you can see in stores a variety of models of grafting secateurs, expensive ones can be of better quality and more durable, and the steel in them is from the same material from which the knives are made, so they are also very durable.

In order to prevent the injured donor sites from being infected, and so that pathogenic fungi and bacteria, insects and other parasites do not penetrate into the cut sites, it is necessary to use a garden var. It also helps the tree to heal much faster at the cut site, which is also a huge advantage of this substance. Garden var also has several other names - garden resin or garden grease - but they are essentially the same thing. The mixture has a very viscous consistency, it is very convenient to cover the injured parts of the plant with it for healing and for protection. But there is one caveat in the use of this tool. Garden varnish manufacturers strive to make it more versatile so that it can be used in different areas and under different climates. Thus, the companies are striving to expand the sales market, new types of garden brews with various mineral additives or compositional characteristics are being created. In addition, the quality of the garden varnish may suffer due to the expansion of the market. So it is worth paying attention to the consistency, color, hardening process.

If the var caught is completely of poor quality, then it is recommended to cook the var with your own hands. There are several recipes that are considered to be the most effective to get a quality product. In a hurry, if the var is needed very urgently, you can cook it according to the so-called village recipe.This will require cow dung and greasy resin, which are mixed very thoroughly until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Wool or down can be added there, which will make the var thicker and more viscous. This mass will have all the necessary properties, and it will also perfectly heal the places where the slices were made. In order to strengthen the scion on the rootstock, you can also use a strapping. To do this, the gardener takes narrow ribbons, which are cut from plastic or plastic bags. There are also gardeners who recommend using insulating tape for these purposes, while it is wrapped around the branch in such a way that the sticky side is not inside, but outside.

How effective the graft was depends on whether the tree that became the donor was chosen correctly, as well as how well the gardener carried out the graft. In order for this process to be truly successful and of high quality, you can focus on several professional recommendations:

- the plants must be as adapted and healthy as possible, while there should be no damage on the trunk and branches

- if the purpose of the grafting was to change the growth of the tree, as well as the state of its crown, its thickening, then the optimal age at which the rootstock is carried out should be about three years

- for the climatic region, the best will be the variety that consistently yields yields, as well as the one that has already adapted to the climatic conditions of the region, and maybe its graft will also be quite successful and effective

- the scion is best prepared from the side of those apple trees that have borne fruit for at least two seasons, that is, the crop has already managed to show itself, its volume and its stability.

Vaccination performance will also largely depend on whether the varieties are related. If they are very close, then the result will be much more effective than the result from a scion of completely different, opposite varieties. You can also graft completely wild apple trees. Thus, the grower will gradually begin to cultivate them, which will play a further role in the yield.

Of course, you should pay careful attention to how the cuttings are prepared. For example, initially you should pay attention to the choice of the tree. It must be strong and healthy enough, and its age must be more than one year. Of course, it will be an advantage if this tree has already borne fruit, because then the gardener will understand more clearly what the donor's yield is, as well as how tasty and abundant this crop is, versatile. Cuttings are harvested in accordance with some rules:

- harvesting begins in the second half of autumn

- at this time, the temperature should not fall below -10 degrees

- the branch that has been selected for subsequent grafting must be very carefully dried

- it is best not to touch the plane of the slices during work, so as not to introduce any additional bacteria or infections, and so as not to simply irritate it

- if the stalk accidentally falls to the ground during the scion, then it should not be disposed of immediately - it will be enough to wipe it and renew the place where the cut is located

- the cutting is wiped with a damp cloth, and then sent to a dark and cool place. Ideally, a basement or cellar is great for this, or a refrigerator shelf might just work. Branches are arranged vertically

- if the stalk is not one, but several of them at once, then it is necessary to place them in a container filled with sawdust or sand. So it will be much easier to maintain the cuttings in a favorable and cool, moist state, which means there will be much more chances for future grafting and engraftment.

In the future, the scion is installed in a snowdrift in such a way that the twigs appear slightly due to the snow cover.This is very important so that they do not end up in a vacuum and simply suffocate.

When spring comes, the gardener should try very hard to maintain the general condition of the snowdrift, to slow down its melting in all possible ways. For this, a certain amount of sawdust can be poured onto the snow.

When the snow cover finally melts, the cuttings are again placed in the bag, and then moistened. This method is great if the gardener does not have any storage room for the cuttings, and therefore he can use such a similar and very interesting trick.

There are also several significant requirements that gardeners place directly on the quality of the cuttings themselves. This should be a full-fledged branch on which there are three to four dense viable buds. It should not have any scratches, dents, damages, breaks.

The best part of the branch for grafting is the middle part. The top cut can be made either completely straight or slightly oblique. The lower cut of the scion is made as it should be in accordance with which method of scion was chosen by the gardener himself. By the way, among the species, one can distinguish such effective methods of grafting apple cuttings as:
- budding
- into cleavage
- copulation.

These methods are the most popular and most often used, so we have listed them first. Also, no matter which vaccination method was chosen by the gardener, some rules and conditions must be taken into account. The tools are very carefully selected and prepared by the gardener, they must be disinfected, even if it is a completely new tool, disinfection is the most important rule. The gardener also thoroughly washes his hands with soap, and during work it is forbidden to come into contact with the cuts, which are located both on the cuttings themselves and on the rootstocks, as you can infect or simply irritate these tender places too much.

Budding - This is one of the most common and used methods of grafting apple trees, which is now in demand among gardeners. The method is generally mastered even by novice gardeners, although they may face some difficulties. For example, initially he may choose the wrong material for grafting trees. Therefore, the gardener should consider several basic rules. In no case should you take already opened or only half-opened buds, since this indicates that the scion has already begun to wake up, which means that it is completely unsuitable for further grafting. It is best to take last year's buds, since they are already sufficiently adapted, and are perfect as a material for further budding. This method of grafting can guarantee almost one hundred percent survival rate of the grafting material, so it is often used by novice gardeners. The procedure is best carried out in the early spring period, or already from about mid-August, when the repeated sap flow begins. In addition, you should pay attention to many factors, one of them is weather conditions.

The stalk is prepared about two days before vaccination; in order to store it, an ordinary jar of water at room temperature is also suitable. About five days before the grower harvests the cuttings, he should water the tree that will become the "cuttings" donor abundantly. All deciduous elements are removed from the cutting, after which the material is stored in a cool and almost dark place.

Grafting into an incision is very similar to budding, but at the same time, this procedure is performed thanks to a cutting. For work, you also need to use a specially prepared grafting knife, which is sharpened only on one side, from the one where the chamfer is located. The stalk is updated by trimming the bottom tip.A branch is selected on the apple tree, the knife is installed slightly tilted down. Cutting movements must be sharp and precise in order to make a one-touch cut. The injured place is covered with garden varnish (bought or made by hand according to the recipe that we already indicated today), and it is also covered with plastic or plastic wrap.

Bark grafting is another type of grafting that is perfect for trees that are three years old. It is optimal for the acclimatization of the culture and also in order to increase the productivity of apple trees, which do not feel very comfortable on the site, or apple trees that are already old enough, and therefore the gardener seeks to return them a second life. This method is rather complicated, so it will not be easy for an inexperienced gardener to cope with it. In addition, sharp and precise movements are required here, which are inherent only to experienced gardeners. It is recommended to vaccinate in the spring, since at this time it will be much easier to separate the cone from the fibers of the branch itself. Another advantage of this method is that up to four cuttings can be grafted at the same time, and this is a fairly abundant and large indicator. The work is performed in several main stages:

- on the apple tree chooses a place that is at a level of one meter from the ground

- cut through wood with a knife, the length of the cut varies from four to five centimeters

- the bark should be very carefully moved, you should act with confident movements

- cut off the lower tip of the cutting and put it behind the bark

- then this place can be tied with polyethylene or plastic.

The procedure should be done very quickly. If the gardener does not have experience in such methods, then it is best for him to practice on unnecessary branches in advance, and then proceed to the main procedure for grafting for the bark.

To carry out the grafting using a method called "tongue copulation", cuttings are needed, the buds on which are only in a state of very slight awakening, but at the same time they have not yet fully awakened. Also, the leaves should not be visible yet. As a grafting material, you can safely take branches that were removed from annual plants. It is best to vaccinate in this way in early spring, this period is absolutely optimal and most comfortable. The branches of the scion and rootstock must be of the same diameter - this is the main and most important condition.

In general, if the gardener follows all the rules, then he can avoid failure. The main thing is also to focus on safety engineering. Grafting of apple trees is carried out on a dry, calm, comfortable day. During the procedure, you should not be distracted by extraneous matters or problems; it is simply necessary to focus your attention on the process. When cutting branches, the hand should not be under the knife blade, otherwise, you can cause severe damage to yourself from sudden movements. You should also disinfect tools, decontaminate and degrease them so as not to start any bacteria or fungi. Novice gardeners can face some challenges. Therefore, it is recommended to watch various videos that are posted on portals and forums for gardeners and farmers. It is also important to consult with more experienced gardeners, since they often have some secrets, thanks to which they do an excellent job of grafting apple trees even in not the most favorable temperature and climatic conditions.