Guerrilla apple grafting?

[Stew]

I have an apple tree in my garden that has produced a nice amount of fruit this year after some years of neglect.

The apples are nice eaters but being of a curious mind, I’m planning to graft other varieties on. What this means is that I’m paying more attention to other apple trees out and about for potential scion swaps.

This evening, I passed at least four crab apple trees. Not what I want graft onto my tree but did wonder if grafting my tree (or other varieties) onto wild crab apples is doable and ethically sound - I figure good practice of grafting.

There doesn’t seem to be a big reason against it to me but there might be something I haven’t thought of?

 

[Toddy]

I was told that so long as the crab is strong enough to bear a branch of full fruits, that it's very do-able.

I knew someone who grafted the most amazing mixes on individual trees He only liked to eat apples as 'apples', didn't like them cooked or dried or pressed, so he deliberately chose ones that ripened one after the other kind of thing. That way he was eating apples right up until the first frosts bit.

 

[Stew]

That’s a clever idea!

 

[Tengu]

Can you graft pears on apples?

 

[British Red]

I have an apple tree in my garden that has produced a nice amount of fruit this year after some years of neglect.

The apples are nice eaters but being of a curious mind, I’m planning to graft other varieties on. What this means is that I’m paying more attention to other apple trees out and about for potential scion swaps.

This evening, I passed at least four crab apple trees. Not what I want graft onto my tree but did wonder if grafting my tree (or other varieties) onto wild crab apples is doable and ethically sound - I figure good practice of grafting.

There doesn’t seem to be a big reason against it to me but there might be something I haven’t thought of?

Depends on the crab apple and the graft type. Almost all rootstocks (e.g. MM106) used commercially are based on crab apples. Clearly with a mature tree, an appropriate graft type is needed - a chip or cleft graft would be my choice

 

[Stew]

Depends on the crab apple and the graft type. Almost all rootstocks (e.g. MM106) used commercially are based on crab apples. Clearly with a mature tree, an appropriate graft type is needed - a chip or cleft graft would be my choice

I doubt anyone would know the type of apple. All out and about in hedgerows and field borders that I saw earlier. A definite opportunity to practice different graft types! I’m optimistic that my pruning this year will be better on my tree which will then also give some potential scions to transfer over.

Turns out my wife has a number of apples at her work - she’s sorting a list of what they have so I can pick some to have some scions from!

 

[Robson Valley]

In Vancouver BC, there's a nursery garden which sells apple trees which have 6 scion varieties grafted on the one stock.
Looks particularly silly as the apples fill out and mature.

Keep it clean. Keep it snug with a little pressure. Match the cambium layers of the scion twigs with the stock stem. Pinch off the flower buds for a year or two, you need strength from woody growth. After a few hundred over a few years for my Master's Degree in Botany, it was clear that the pressure to keep the joint covered and snug was most important.

I pinch off all the flower clusters with my grape vine cuttings, I want roots and leaves, not a 12" runt with a skinny bunch of grapes.