It was with a certain amount of trepidation that Diana and I approached the greenhouse yesterday morning, it was finally time to see if the cherry budding had been successful. Way back on the 24th August last year we had attached two new buds to each of eight root stocks, binding them tightly against the hosts phloem tissue in the hope that they would fuse together, now it was time to peel away the wrappings and reveal all. The first four buds had failed so there were long faces all round but after we uncovered them all we think four have taken on one rootstock each and the last has possibly both, of course only time will tell and now we must wait to see if new shoots emerge. Next we checked the stool bed which we had earthed up to produce new roots, this had gone well as the picture proves, each stem being cut off low down with a good portion of growth and them potted up, giving us seven new dwarfing apple root stocks which when grown on for a couple of years can in their turn become hosts to named varieties. It is a privilege to have this knowledge passed on to me and fascinating to experience each stage, the next being grafting which will start in about a month.
"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success" Dale Carnegie.
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