Hard Graft

Sunset apple

Diana and I were at Harlow Carr again yesterday attending the Northern Fruit Group apple tree grafting course, so I've been classroom bound two days running this week. In the morning we learnt how to make the tongue and groove cuts in the right places, we practised on twigs that didn't matter which was a good job as I found it quite difficult. The two pieces have to be of the same size and shape so the cork cambium layers rest against each other, easier said than done! Eventually Hillary let us loose on the real thing, working with MM106 root-stocks which are semi-dwarfing and should produce good sized healthy trees, I chose to graft one Discovery and one Sunset. Hopefully both will produce manageable little trees with sweet fruit which the children will enjoy, but to be honest it will be a miracle if the grafts take given how cack-handed I turned out to be! I'll keep you posted as the results should become apparent by mid May.

Discovery

"If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees" Hal Borland