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Still not sure about grafting my own fruit trees after trying it for 2 seasons
I spent about 60 bucks on rootstock and scion wood last spring and tried grafting a few apple varieties onto my property near Asheville. Half of them took, which surprised me since I was pretty skeptical about doing it myself instead of just buying nursery trees. But the ones that did survive are growing slow and one already got hit by deer, so part of me thinks the extra effort is only worth it if you have a specific heirloom variety you can't find locally. The other half of me sees how much cheaper it is long term and wants to keep going. For those of you who graft regularly, is the success rate actually worth the time compared to just planting bare-root trees?
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margaret23428d ago
Yeah, the deer thing hits home. I've lost more young trees to those pests than to grafting failures, and it makes you wonder if all that careful work was worth it.
But honestly, half taking on your first try is pretty solid. The slow growth part is normal too, they usually catch up after a couple years if you can keep the critters off them.
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