enjoy the ride
Sufficient Life
One of my asian pear trees had developed canker so I cut it down. But that meant I needed a pollenizer for my others. I decided to get a bartlett as it's an easy tree to find.
Went to the garden store as bare root trees are in now here. And bought a semi-dwarf Bartlett for $24 - I couldn't believe it- last grafted tree I bought was $15 and I thought that was too much.
Today I was planting out the tree and found one of my grafted apples had suckered. But instead of clipping it off like I usually do, I dug up the suckers to use of root stock for an spple that I want to graft off a tree that is too small. I will let it grow this year then graft next spring.
At one point in my life, I scrounged root stock off of friends trees along with scion wood to make trees the size and variety I wanted. But I got lazy recently and bought trees.
Grafting is sooooo easy-and you can get the size and variety you want at little or no cost if you know someone willing to let you take some suckers and clip a few branches. In fact I have bought a tree or two that did not turn out to be what I wanted so I cut it back to the main trunk and grafted what I did want onto it. Big tree in two seasons.
So if you want fast and usual, then buying is what you should do- but if you want lots of inexpensive trees or want something not commercially available- grafting is easy and you will have a producing tree within two years of one purchased.
I
Went to the garden store as bare root trees are in now here. And bought a semi-dwarf Bartlett for $24 - I couldn't believe it- last grafted tree I bought was $15 and I thought that was too much.
Today I was planting out the tree and found one of my grafted apples had suckered. But instead of clipping it off like I usually do, I dug up the suckers to use of root stock for an spple that I want to graft off a tree that is too small. I will let it grow this year then graft next spring.
At one point in my life, I scrounged root stock off of friends trees along with scion wood to make trees the size and variety I wanted. But I got lazy recently and bought trees.
Grafting is sooooo easy-and you can get the size and variety you want at little or no cost if you know someone willing to let you take some suckers and clip a few branches. In fact I have bought a tree or two that did not turn out to be what I wanted so I cut it back to the main trunk and grafted what I did want onto it. Big tree in two seasons.
So if you want fast and usual, then buying is what you should do- but if you want lots of inexpensive trees or want something not commercially available- grafting is easy and you will have a producing tree within two years of one purchased.
I