The grafting of fruit trees consists in connecting one culture with another. After such an event, the two components fuse together and continue to live as a single organism. Spring is considered the best period for budding, and it is better to do this until the plants are fully awakened from wintering, when young ovaries form on its shoots. If it didnโt succeed in grafting in the spring, then the apple trees are grafted in August.
Causes of tree budding
There are some factors that indicate culture inoculation. Here are a few of them:
- low quality fruits;
- plants often get sick;
- due to age, the apple tree ceases to bear fruit;
- little free space in the garden;
- to increase the resistance of wood to low temperatures;
- if the trunk of the culture is badly damaged.
The main methods of vaccination
Vaccination of apple trees in August produced by several methods:
- cuttings;
- in the butt;
- kidney
- to the root.
The cut
In summer, budding falls in mid-July and early August. At this stage, the second phase of sap flow is in progress. As a kidney, annual cuttings with sufficiently developed scions are used. It is required to take them only from healthy trees tested, which have good annual growth and are characterized by high productivity. It is necessary to pre-prepare the annual growth by tying it into bunches, attach labels with the name of the variety to them and put them in storage. As a rule, cuttings are prepared at the beginning of the winter period, but they can also be prepared before the ovaries swell.
For plant grafting, kidneys cut from the center of annual growth with 3-4 grafts are used. The length of the cuttings should be approximately 25-45 cm. The surface cut is always shortened โby the kidneyโ, and the inner part of the scion is cut off depending on the method of budding. Vaccination of an apple tree in August is necessarily carried out by a grafting and very sharp knife. The length of the sloping slice should be 3-3.5 times greater than the diameter of the kidney, and its appearance should be smooth. Between the edge and the flat surface of the blade of the knife are not allowed gaps.
How to store them?
Ready-made scions are placed in basements with a temperature of 0 ... +2 degrees and they are kept there until budding. The lower places of the cuttings are laid in wet sand or sawdust. If the cellar is absent, then the kidneys are wrapped in a wet burlap and stored in an unheated room until a permanent snow cover is formed. Then they remove the packaging from them and carry them in snow piles.
To prevent the cuttings from melting so quickly in spring, they are placed from the northern part of the building and covered with any heat-insulating material (needles, peat, sawdust). After a warm winter, grafted raw materials can also be prepared in early spring, but you should be aware that sprouts with frozen wood are no longer suitable for budding.
Vaccination of apple tree in August in the butt
Inoculation in this way makes it possible to extend the term for budding. When it is performed, incomplete separation of the cortex is possible. A positive feature of this method is the lack of swimming eyes.
For vaccination in the butt on the plant, the tongue of the bark is cut: first, at an angle of 45 degrees, making a diametrical incision, and then, moving away from it by 3-3.5 cm upwards, make a longitudinal section. At the same time, the knife edge is slightly deepened, not reaching 1 cm to the transverse undercut. As a result, a recess (wedge) appears, which ensures the fixation of the flap and facilitates the binding of the grafting.
The technology for grafting apple trees in August goes further in the following order. To trim the shield, the kidney is held in the left hand with the crown away from you. Under the selected shank, 1.5 cm from it and at a 45 degree angle with a knife, make a transverse incision of the bark, digging a little into the tree. Then set the knife 2 cm above the scion and perform an axial cut of the shield to the diametrical section. The shield is installed on a prepared place on the plant and tightly tied.
To be safe, budding is often done with two eyes. After three weeks after inoculation, their survival is monitored. If vaccinated successfully, the stock is no longer available or can be easily separated. Secondary budding is performed on a kidney with an unplanted cuttings on the back side of the stock, shifting in height, or they are postponed for the spring.
How to vaccinate a kidney?
Vaccination of apple trees in August is the most popular method of budding. It even works out well for those who have never done this before.
The survival rate of grafts under ideal weather conditions is quite high (95% and above). Mid-July and August are considered the best times for summer vaccination. In which month to carry out the procedure, everyone decides for himself, studying the branches on the cultures from which the cuttings will be collected.
The shoots must be ripe, the ovaries - developed. During vaccination, it is necessary that the bark on plants is easily separated from the tree. To do this, you need to take a knife and try to cut it on the "unnecessary" shoots to get the expected vaccination of apple trees in August. A photo illustrating the process is presented below.
Before you start an event, you can practice trimming your kidneys. First, a cut is made into the stock (the flaps should be learned to cut quickly so that the cuts are not weathered). To do this, use a very sharp knife. Then the leaves are removed from the grafts, keeping the petioles from them (it is very convenient to hold the buds with buds on them). The shank should be shortened simultaneously with the shield 0.5 cm wide and 2.5-3 cm long. It is also necessary to hook the bark, but only with a thin layer - it is better not thicker than a paper sheet. Too dense shields are poorly received.
Budding process
Grafting is required only on strong branches developing perpendicularly upwards. This shoot will be the trunk of an apple tree, so the more massive it is, the better. Next, carefully insert the shoot into the prepared T-shaped incision (it is acceptable in the usual section, however, it is more difficult to fix the eye on it). The edges of the bark must be turned out with the tip of a knife, then squeezed tightly, gently holding the handle, and wrap well with electrical tape.
Vaccination of apple trees in August is carried out, as a rule, in dry weather, and for the best separation of the bark, plants are watered abundantly 2-3 days before budding. You can still wipe the trunks with a damp cloth to get rid of dust and dirt. The grafting area on the tape, as well as lower and higher than the place of budding, is best covered with plasticine or garden varnish, then there will be no noticeable volatilization of moisture, which is necessary for good survival.
It takes about a month for the vaccine to take root. Then it will be possible to remove the bandage. It is possible to find out whether the vaccination has passed successfully only by the kidney of the leaf. If it dries and it is difficult to disconnect it from the handle, then the budding has failed. With a positive effect, the scion will not dry out and after some period it will easily disappear.
Vaccination of apple trees on the root in August
This method is a salvation in a situation when at the wrong time a new variety of buds was acquired, but there are no plants for this tree. Cuttings of apple trees can be completely oculated on each other's root systems, as well as planted with a deepening of the grafting site and further hilling of the growing branch.
The roots themselves are best prepared in the fall, immediately after leaf fall. But it is also allowed in early spring, simultaneously with the thawing of the earth. It is better if the roots are with lobes and branches. Their length should be 15-20 cm, thickness - not less than the thickness of the grafted kidneys. The roots prepared in the fall are tied in bundles and stored in the same environment as ordinary plants.
In August, vaccinations are planted in open soil, in paths, which according to the degree of development of the cuttings are covered with soil, and then spud. With sufficient care, abundant watering and fertilizer, wonderful one-year-olds will form by the fall, from which the stock is removed, since the kidney has already formed its root system.
The vaccination of apple trees in August will require increased care in the first years. The tree must be constantly watered, thin out the foliage, mulch the earth and feed with organic matter. But if everything is done correctly, then after 2-3 years the plant will delight the owners with its fruits.