I have a random Sour Orange that started growing in the back of my yard - less than one year old and it's over 10' tall and covered in sour oranges. I'd love to graft some edible citrus on there.

I second Champ's suggestion of starting with easier to graft species like apples and pears. Black walnuts, in particular, are a species I would want to practice with on a smaller scale before I went to the time and trouble of grafting hundreds. I have very limited experience grafting walnuts myself, but I'd be surprised if someone that hadn't ever done any grafting before got more than 10% takes his first year. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if a beginner grafted hundreds of walnuts and didn't get any takes at all.

I think shagbarks and hicans are graft compatible with pecans, but my second-hand understanding is that pecan makes a better rootstock for pecans, hicans, and even shagbarks, particularly in terms of years-to-bearing. You might do better to grow some pecan seedlings from nuts (for roostock) than use shagbark seedlings you already have.

I've had seemingly random mixed success grafting mulberries -- apples and pears have been much more consistent for me -- but they would also seem worth trying.

Can jujube really be grafted on buckthorn? Would jujube even be winter hardy where you are? Would you have enough heat and a long enough season to ripen fruit?

Grapes and rose hips don't necessarily seem like things worth grafting (especially on multiflora rose), even if you have potential rootstocks already established. You might do better to propagate these in ways other than grafting.

I agree that pears & apples would be the easier to start with on your list.

I have had similar ideas, which are very exciting to dream about, but unfortunately I have not made any a reality yet. But it is not for lack of tryingâ¦

I have made numerous attempts grafting sea berry, autumn olive, and goumi to russian olive, with zero success. I will try for the last time this spring. I did read somewhere that that whole family does not form compatible grafts between species. Then there is the fact that these fruiting shrubs layer easily, and are also easily propagated from cuttings.

Seaberry is not a buckthorn despite the name, and so would certainly not be compatible with naturalized buckthorn species. Neither would jujube, being only a distant relative. Jujube might be compatible with one of the native Ziziphus species in the Southwest US (such as whitethorn or lote bush). Jujube might survive a zone 5 climate though.

Roses⦠probably better off growing desired cultivars from cuttings or even seed, but your idea would probably work nonetheless.

My prediction as to your success? Likely with apple, pear, and grape, and maybe some of the nuts and roses.

Good luck...

Again, apples/pears - easy-peasy. I routinely graft good fruiting varieties onto 'volunteer' callery pear and crabapple seedlings popping up around the farm, courtesy of the birds.
If you've got hawthorns... you can graft on fruiting selections... I have a number of mayhaws on native cockspur hawthorn - but they may not be suitable for a zone 5 setting. Have also grafted pears onto hawthorn understock - have one 'survivor' that's getting close to 15 years old now... Have seen reports that some serviceberry selections are sold grafted onto hawthorn understock.
Mulberries - absolutely - good fruiting varieties are easily grafted/budded onto seedling understock.
Walnuts...toughest thing I've ever grafted, with regard to success rates, but it can be done; just don't get disappointed with early failures.
Shagbark hickory best for improved shagbark selections... as cuz'nFloyd said, it is graft-compatible with pecan, hican, shellbark, but those will outgrow the slower-growing shagbark understock.
Persimmon? With all the others you've mentioned, surely you've got volunteer persimmons, too - seedlings work fine as understocks for improved fruiting selections.
Osage Orange - will support the edible Che fruit (Cudrania tricuspidata).

Don't forget about oaks; low-tannin, large acorn, or extremely productive selections have been made. Members of the white oak group graft readily onto other members of that group - though post oak (Q.stellata) is generally so slow-growing that it's not recommended as an understock. Red/black oaks can be grafted, but some issues with incompatibility are common.

This post was edited by lucky_p on Wed, Dec 17, 14 at 0:01

Thank you for the advice. cousinfloyd is mostly likely correct :) "I wouldn't be surprised if a beginner grafted hundreds of walnuts and didn't get any takes at all," either.

Lucky, what's the value of low-tannin oaks? Are they low-tannin enough to be edible and good without leaching? If so, how valuable/desirable/useful a food do you consider them? Or do they just make leaching quicker/easier?

E,
I've sampled some that were 'sweet' enough that you could eat 'em without leaching - not much flavor - kinda like a really bland chestnut.
But! I'm not convinced that genetics is the whole deal on acorns - I've eaten acorns from the same tree, the next year, that were no less bitter than any other member of the same species.
That said, the native Americans - and indigenous peoples in other areas of the world, where oaks are part of the climax forest, utilized acorns as a food source - whether for themselves or for their livestock (and wildlife).
I initially got interested in acorns as a hard mast crop for deer/turkeys, but along the way got hooked up with IOS and NNGA folks who were making some selections for low tannin content, acorn size, productivity, etc. Have some of those grafted & growing here, but I'm not currently doing anything with them other than letting the local wildlife eat the acorns. But, if things go 'south', I'll have plenty of acorns to process...

I'll readily admit, that after 20 years of grafting, my success rate with walnuts is probably less than 1%; was really disappointing when the Easter freeze of 2007 killed almost every one of the walnuts I'd ever been successful grafting.
Pecans/hickories...easier, but I still struggle to get 50%...

The 2007 Easter freeze killed whole trees dead? How can that happen? Were they all recent grafts?

What do you do if your success rate is 1%? Do you keep trying at all? Different methods, timing, etc.? You don't make 100 grafts just to get 1 tree?

I'm still 0% with pecans, by the way. I've had satisfactory initial success with black walnuts: 2 out of about 15 (3 out of 15 if I count the one that took off really vigorously and might have survived if I had staked it, 3 out of 14 if I don't count the one I where I caught the prunings from the rootstock with the bush hug and knocked the scion loose before it had a chance to grow.)

E,
We'd had an inordinately warm March 2007 - with temps even up into the 80s... Almost everything had broken dormancy...pecans, walnuts, persimmons, oaks... had 6-10" of tender new growth. Then, 4 nights in a row with temps into the low teens.
Disastrous.
All leaves & new growth burnt off of everything. ALL of my grafted Carpathian walnuts & heartnuts were killed back to their black walnut rootstock, except 'Late Rhodes' heartnut - and these were mostly 2-4 yr old grafts. Killed most of my grafted persimmons back to the rootstock's root collar. Had several butternut and heartnut seedlings - 10 ft tall, that were killed outright. Dead. Not even resprouting from the root collar.
Big mature oaks & hickories in the woods were killed back to main trunks - branches larger around than my thigh killed.
Following the Easter Big Freeze Disaster, we had severe drought conditions - with a single 1" rain event between May 10 and Nov 30. Took several years for some of those mature forest trees to die, ice storm in Jan 2009 took a bunch of them down, but they're still falling.

Wow, sounds like one of the 10 plagues of Egypt. I remember the severe freezes here, too, but I don't remember -- and so far as I know we didn't have -- the long-term consequences. I do remember how all the trees were thoroughly leafed out and just completely dead and brown everywhere. I've never seen anything like it except for really severe cicada years in the worst spots, but that's still no comparison. It seemed like pretty much everything leafed out again, though. I don't remember 2007 being a super dry year here. It might have been drier than average, but nothing like the 1" over nearly the entire growing season.

Anyone heard of anything edible being grafted onto Carolina Laurelcherry? Those things grow like weeds around here.

How did this turn out????????