Question about interstems-low chill and dwarfs

18 years ago

I plan to graft over a few trees this year. What happens if you graft low chill varieties onto high chill varieties, and you are in a low chill area. Ive heard of bad results with higher chill apples in Southern California when multi grafted, but that they do well despite the lack of chill when grown singlely.I am trying to grow cherries in a marginal climate. I have many of the lower chill varieties, including the two new ones from Dave Wilson reputed to fruit with 300 hrs. I had all these trees on standard rootstock, so this winter I got a Lapins on Gisela 5 to find out sooner if I can fruit cherries! So I want to graft a bunch of other varieties onto this tree. Lapins is a higher chill and I hope it doesnt effect the varieties grafted onto it.

I have a dwarf nectarine,Nectarbabe that has horrible tasting fruit, well theyre about like a bad storebought. I plan to graft over some better full flavor varieties. I wonder if it will dwarft the trees or have some other effect. As long as they taste good...

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Comments (3)

applenut_gw
18 years ago
The problem I had with multi-graft apple trees in a low-chill climate is that the first variety to blossom seems to hog all the tree's vigor, and the other varieties just kind of sit there; so now I have a really thick Anna branch and a skinny Fuji branch. It may be different with cherries, so give it a shot and let us know how it works out.
joereal
18 years ago
I wish I could tell you if I had experiences over there. Over here, low chill or high chill doesn't matter, no problem except for the known incompatibility issues.

Usually, the higher chill requirement will be imparted unto the lower chill, but not fully. It depends on the specific interaction with the grafted cultivar, so the best is to really try it out. It is good to try it out, you can always regraft if you think it is not working out.

The dwarf nectarine could be a genetic dwarf, and it is dwarf because the intrernodes are a lot closer together. Grafting a normal peach unto it, will simply revert back to normal size internodes and you lose the original dwarfing mechanism, unless the rootstock is truly a dwarfing type which I doubt are used for genetically dwarfed peaches or nectarines.
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joereal
18 years ago
I have solved the problem about the early and late bloomers when grafted together. There are two general methods that you can overcome such problem and achieve a well balanced tree.

One is that you graft the late bloomers towards the south side of the canopy. Even if the early bloomers will sap most of the juices, you will be insuring that the late bloomers will never be shaded out because they are facing south.

Another or in combo is to regraft the vigorous ones over the less vigorous ones and vice versa. Do this for 2 more seasons, and you would have achieved the proper balance of growth and vigor. You would then have 1 or 2 interstems that have the proper interactions for balanced vigor.