Fruit tree cloning & grafting 🌳 project update

samstonehill (73)in #permaculture • 2 years ago

Just a quick one to show you what things are looking like one month after taking cuttings from all the fruit & nut trees in this region, process described in this post.

Here we have fig cuttings in soil, some in bottles, some in cling film and as you can see they are looking super healthy. I cannot confirm it but something tells me these little babies are already growing roots.

This is what they looked like at the base one month ago, just before I pushed them into the soil with their aloe vera root hormone.

The figs have been the fastest of all the trees to produce new growth and look as if they don't actually need the bottles any more.

In here I have two peach and an apricot. (colour coded pots!)

Initially I had them all in clingfilm but my feeling is that the bottles are better, so have been slowly collecting bottles and creating multiple mini greenhouses. We had snow this week so keeping the underdeveloped ones warm & insulated is still very important.

Here we have another variety of fig, also now pushing its way through the top of the clingfilm, making me wonder if I shouldn't just remove it?

These pots are all over the courtyard at the moment but mostly in the greenhouse.

Let's have a look in here. You can see how this peach on the left is pushing new growth out from the bottom (probably thanks to the overall humidity inside the greenhouse).

Again, this makes me wonder if I shouldn't just remove the clingfilm already? Do any of my readers have experience with this?

Here we have Reine Claude plums on the left and elderflower in the pink bucket. One of them looks a bit dead but the others are doing fine.

A red variety of hazelnut.

And a cherry!

In short, every variety I took (which includes peach, plum, apricot, apple, almond, nectarine, cherry, elderflower, hazelnut, fig, walnut & persimmons) are all showing signs of life after just one month. Which is great!

Their siblings on the other hand, which were placed directly in water and kept inside our home, are all looking pretty sad. They haven't grown at all and most of the green bits feel crispy and dead.

I will keep them in there another month or two, just to to be sure. It was an apple producer who informed me apples can be cloned in this way, so let's see. Perhaps the apple cuttings will suddenly sprout to life next week...

Fig grafts

One month ago I grafted a desirable variety of fig onto an existing fig tree in my courtyard, process described in this post.

Looking at it yesterday I noticed some green growth in there.

I know patience is the name of the game here, but I couldn't help myself and excitedly removed the outer layer of cling film to have a little look.

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For those of you who missed the fig grating post, the new fig branch has been connected to our tree like this.

I am certain that when I attached it there was no green growth coming out of the top, so seeing this little crack of green here is a very encouraging sign!

Can't really say for sure yet but it seems to me this graft has been successful and the upper section of this tree will have a different coloured fig to the lower section.

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Bud grafts

One month ago I added ten bud grafts to a small plum tree in the garden, process described in this post. As a prunus tree it is capable of hosting all varieties of plum, cherry, peach, apricot, nectarine & almond.

Since making these bud grafts I have added an extra layer of clingfilm over the top, like I did for the figs. I did this because some of them had leaves which were wilting and I felt like they needed the extra humidity. For now I cannot see any signs of growth under the clingfilm, but as soon as there is something to photograph, you can be sure I will!

So that's it. Just a quick one like I said ;)

Here is the amazing banana flower in our courtyard still going strong. I am wondering when it gets warmer if it might start making bananas again?