A Primer on Apple Tree Release and Grafting Techniques
In the early nineteenth century, John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman sallied forth from Leominster, Massachusetts, to sell and sow apple seeds and seedlings from Pennsylvania to Illinois. Traveling along the Ohio River in two canoes lashed together like a catamaran, Chapman placed his faith in seeds. As a devotee of the teachings of Swedish theologian and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg, he believed that grafting was not a righteous manner in which to grow apples because it harmed the trees.
Despite Chapman’s philosophical objections to grafting, the practice offers the only way to replicate a particular variety of apple. The sprouts from apple seeds don’t breed true because they contain such wide genetic variability, which is why the apples from seed-grown trees will almost never taste anything like those from the parent tree. (Most of the apples that Chapman’s trees produced were small and bitter, called “spitters.”)
So when colonial farmers discovered a new apple that was especially good for baking, storing, or eating out of hand – or for producing everything from sweet cider to sauce, from pies to apple butter – they grafted that scion wood, and a new variety was born. By the early 1800s, US farmers were producing some 15,000 different kinds of apples, with names that ran the gamut from regal to whimsical: Maiden’s Blush, Blue Pearmain, Bellefleur, Duchess of Oldenburg, and Westfield Seek-No-Further.
Beginning in the twentieth century, the advent of large-scale orchards led to homogenization. Fewer apple varieties were planted, and marketing considerations reinforced these newer, limited consumer preferences. As of 2011, just six varieties – Red Delicious, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, and McIntosh – accounted for more than 75 percent of the 204,564,000 bushels of apples sold in the United States.
It’s estimated that 80 percent of our “heirloom” apples now stand on the brink of extinction. With the disappearance of each variety, we will lose more of the apple’s rich heritage – the biological diversity that preserves pest resistance, flavor, and other desirable traits.
But all is not lost: many of our old apple varieties hang on in the interstices of old fields and forests. These ancient trees, which once prospered in the orchards of small family farms and dooryards, are now being rediscovered and restored.
Back in Time
Two centuries after John Chapman’s era, another native son of Massachusetts, Terry Dorman, grew up on a former farm with an old apple orchard in Boxford, just 30 miles east of Chapman’s birthplace. Dorman’s family has owned the property since 1774.
“It once had a large cider mill with a horse-driven pumice stone and trough,” Dorman recalled. “The entire property – farmhouse, barn, cider mill, outbuildings, and 400 acres – passed to my father in 1961. Thinking the old trees were beyond saving, he planted new stock and added pears and peaches. I never forgot climbing in the old trees and, looking back, realize my father missed an opportunity to save them.”
Dorman never lost his love for old apple trees and historic landscapes, a passion that would one day place him squarely in the forefront of a contemporary movement to save and restore our rapidly disappearing heirloom apples. Like Chapman, Dorman is motivated by both passion and practicality.
In 1995, he acquired an orchard in Quechee, Vermont, that had been planted in the early 1920s but was abandoned in the 1960s – half-dead McIntosh trees had become overwhelmed by forest growth during decades of neglect. Some locals advised that it was too late to salvage the old trees, but Dorman forged ahead. While the costs to bring the old trees back were substantial, Dorman found that the old trees created a niche market for his pick-your-own business. “Customers love the old trees,” he said. “The spacing, scale, and setting take the visitor back in time.”
It took Dorman some two decades to fully transform the formerly rundown historic landscape into a commercial business – Whitman Brook Orchard. When the old Macs had been rejuvenated, he added more than 100 heirloom apple varieties from other sources. He planted those young trees adjacent to the original orchard, then started grafting the heirloom varieties onto some of the old macs. During the process of resuscitating the old trees, Dorman discovered another purpose – to use the knowledge he had gained to help landowners restore their own disused and overgrown apple trees to production.
Here, he shares his grafting techniques and some steps and considerations for restoring old trees.
Releasing and Pruning
An abandoned orchard can take three forms: a former orchard where the field is mown seasonally but the trees have not been maintained; an abandoned orchard that has not yet reverted to forest; or an abandoned orchard that has reverted to forest.
If the orchard has reverted to forest, clear any competing growth in the winter or early spring in order to avoid risking leaf damage in the event that a removal falls into or gets tangled with the tree being saved. Unless the stumps are greater than eight inches in diameter, flush cutting is all that is required. Stump grinding is preferable to removal. Leave as much of the woody debris as possible (ideally after chipping it) on the orchard floor. “We chipped everything under a six-inch diameter and broadcast them on the orchard floor to return the nutrients,” said Dorman. “That made a big difference.” After the trees have been released, it’s best to let a full growing season go by before you start pruning. This timing allows the released trees to adjust to the extra light.
Assess soil drainage once the neighboring ground has dried out in the spring. Bear in mind that in a wet year, all ground looks and feels soggy in the spring. Identify wet areas where drainage work will be needed. Plant species provide clues. In wet locations, grass will have been supplanted by plants typical of a wet meadow, such as wetland ferns or certain species of sedge. Assuming the original planting was a commercial orchard or large farm, you may be able to locate clay drain tiles (which will likely be broken or clogged). Missing trees are often another clue to wet or shallow soil. Over time, trees growing above ledge will struggle and sometimes die in a prolonged drought. If the problem is shallow rather than poorly drained soil, supplemental drip irrigation can be used to help in the establishment of new trees. If the budget will not permit drainage and irrigation, concentrate on the sections of the orchard that have well-drained, loamy soil.
Begin the initial pruning. The safest approach, when you’re first starting out, is to limit pruning to dead or diseased wood and broken limbs. A tree previously starved for sunlight will need every bit of leaf surface available. If the trees have been growing in an open field, 15 to 20 percent of the live wood can be removed, but Dorman suggests limiting pruning to obviously crossing or inward-growing branches. The height of the trees will doubtless need to be lowered over time, so in the absence of a grafting and height reduction plan, some water sprouts (suckers) should be saved. When it comes to restorative pruning of a neglected apple tree, Dorman advised, “Go slow; when in doubt, do nothing.”
Begin height reduction. “At Whitman Brook, year two was the first season we pruned for height reduction,” said Dorman. “We had an 18-foot orchard ladder, but often had to free-climb 10 to 15 feet above the top of the ladder. It took us five years to get all the trees lowered to the point that a 16-foot closed-top ladder was sufficient for most trees. Occasionally, I still need to haul out the 21-foot ladder for a small number of cuts. Height maintenance is ongoing.” His mantra again is to go slowly. Aggressive height reduction can cause more problems than it solves. A tree that has been aggressively pruned will respond with massive amounts of vegetative growth, which compounds the problem and is contrary to the goal of air and light circulation.
Don’t try to reconcile your tree with a drawing or picture in a book. Pruning is a dwarfing exercise to improve light penetration and air circulation – it can be accomplished in many ways. Focus on thinning cuts, where you remove an entire shoot or branch, and avoid heading-back cuts that just remove the terminal portion of a branch, which causes vigorous vegetative growth. If you find yourself making many small thinning cuts on a single branch, it’s usually a sign the entire branch should be removed.
Apply fertilizer or compost annually, particularly where trees have been growing for 50 years or more. How long does it take before you’ll see results? “We started in 1995 and had decent fruit by 1997, but the orchard was not truly productive until 2001,” Dorman recalled. “Three to five years is realistic, depending upon the condition of the trees.”
Grafting
Once the trees have been released and rejuvenated, you can add diversity to the orchard through grafting.
Obtain six to eight healthy pieces of scion wood (eight to twelve inches each) from the variety of heirloom apple you wish to graft onto the old apple tree. At this point, there are two options: top-working, where the goal is to change the variety of the tree entirely, or grafting a single branch or multiple branches to an old tree.
When top-working, choose a healthy stem, vertical branch, or vigorous water sprout. The lower, the better – as long as the tree or graft will be protected from deer browsing. Otherwise, consider a higher graft union. If changing over one or more branches, select those that have an upward, as opposed to horizontal, trajectory. Make the cut clean and even, perpendicular or square to the direction of growth, and at least eight to ten inches from the branch collar. Leave all other major branches of the tree that are not shading light from the graft or will not restrict its growth. Continue to maintain the remainder of the crown by judicious pruning (as described above). If top-working, the transitional limbs act as nurse limbs, supplying essential nutrients until the graft has put on sufficient growth to support the root system (the number of years required is a function of the size of the tree). On a large tree, nurse limbs should be removed over successive years. On smaller trees, the next season is usually adequate.
Graft one to six scions at the cut. The diameter of the wood receiving the graft will determine the number of scions that should be used. Whitman Brook uses whip and tongue grafts for water sprouts and other small branches, cleft grafts for branches up to 1.5 inches in diameter, and rind grafts for anything larger. With a whip and tongue, the graft is located at the point where the diameter of the scion and the receiving wood sprout are approximately the same. Cleft grafts require the receiving wood to be gently split and opened so that the scion can be inserted and then held by pressure. A rind graft is a technique of peeling the bark and cambium from the sapwood at 1.5- to 2.5-inch intervals around the perimeter of the newly cut trunk.
Wrap the scions tightly in place. Dorman uses a three-layer wrap, beginning with Parafilm clear grafting tape, followed by a non-adhesive colored flagging tape that protects the Parafilm, then an outer layer of electrical tape, whose purpose is to apply pressure. Three to four weeks after the scions have leafed, the electrical tape and flagging are removed.
Coat each graft and the top of the cross-sectioned receiving wood with grafting wax or grafting sealer. At Whitman Brook, Gashell grafting wax is used for cleft grafts and Doc Farwell’s grafting sealer is used for rind grafts. Parafilm alone is sometimes sufficient for whip and tongue grafts, but Gashell often provides a more stable seal. When using sealers, take care that the sealer does not run into the grafting union, which has the potential to compromise the bonding of live wood. Do not cut back or remove any scions during the first growing season. At the end of the following dormant season, prune back, but do not cut off, all of the scions except for the one that will ultimately remain to bear the crop (the long-term graft). The other scions will perform a transitional healing function until the graft cut has closed (at which time only a single stem should remain). The future crop scion should be headed back to promote the appropriate branch structure. Finally, enclose the entire grafting field within fine-meshed hardware cloth to protect it from deer browsing.
Clear Scions of Success
Saving the old trees at Whitman Brook Orchard proves that form can meet function and aesthetics can enhance economics to create an existential balance – a pleasing whole. “With the caveat that the time I spend is disproportionate to our revenue,” said Dorman, “the orchard is self-supporting and achieving healthy sales growth annually. My plan is different than most orchards in that our product is based not only on apples for eating, but upon all the techniques, tools, content, and varieties associated with the management and expansion of an heirloom orchard. One of my visions is to show the view looking through the other end of the telescope – by that, I mean thinking unconventionally and examining the totality of what exists in order to maximize all of the raw materials. Whitman Brook is an example of what is possible, in every respect, and we hope customers leave with more than tasty apples.”