Apple varieties grafted. (forum)

Peter62 starts with ...
I will be taking up residence on Russell Island this year and I have a good red soil block and plan to grow fruit trees. When living in Adelaide had an apple tree with 4 grafts on the one root stock, Red and Golden Delicious, Jonathan, and Granny Smith, not done by me. Is it possible to achieve a similar outcome with the low chill varieties?

Time: 4th February 2018 5:14pm

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About the Author Peter62
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Atif says...
Yes they can be done!

Don't know if Daleys sells them, but there are other australian companies sell them. Usually go by name of Fruit salad trees.

Time: 6th February 2018 11:31am

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About the Author alabatusa
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Fruitylicious1 says...
Yes I've done multiple grafts (quintuple) with my ballerina apple with the following cv's : golden and red delicious, fuji, cox orange pippin and huonville crab apple. You can do the same with low chill varieties. Just do your research first and practice. Perform the grafting during the dormant season. If you couldn't be bothered doing it by yourself just buy a fruit salad tree as suggested by the other forum member.

Happy gardening :-)

Time: 8th February 2018 10:07am

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Markmelb says...
Hi Fruity - thats interesting grafting onto a Ballerina - like to see a photo as wondering if new scions became branchy or short and spurry? I've grafted multiple cvs onto a dwarf Golden Delicious - in fact have 2 Red Love fruit to try soon from grafting it last july - it didn't grow much - only flowered and I let 2 of 4 fruit grow - if its any good will continue or graft something else. Cheers

Time: 8th February 2018 1:36pm

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Slicko says...
Hi Peter
Last year I bought scions from (I think) from Tasmania and grafted them to my four apple trees, two of which are dwarfed low chill and the others not as heavily dwarfed if that's a possibility. I think they are on different root stocks. Any how their recommended chill hours is around 600.and both are fruiting nicely at the moment, this being their second season. The Gala has probably 30 fruit and the Granny Smith 20. Last spring I grafted a second variety to all trees and all took. From that experiment I am tempted to graft scions from the Anna and the Tropical Sweet to the other trees so that I have room for something else.
What I don't know about is how the trees will treat dormancy with varieties requiring different chilling or does the dominant variety control the breaking of dormancy.

Gala/Sundowner graft

Gala with exclusion bags covering fruit
Pictures - Click to enlarge

Picture: 1
Picture: 2
Picture: 3
Picture: 4

Time: 8th February 2018 3:50pm

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Peter62 says...
Thank you for the positive feedback and advice Atif and Fruitylicious.

Time: 9th February 2018 2:14pm

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Fruitylicious1 says...
Hi Mark

Unfortunately I sold the property including my ten year old multiple grafted ballerina apple and cherry trees and other assorted fruit trees. I was force to graft other cv's to the ballerina apple because the fruit tasted ordinary. We all like red and golden delicious plus fuji and threw in some rare cv's too. After 3 years we (family and friends) were all enjoying our favorite apple in one tree. I can also report from first hand experience that the grafted cv's will not follow the columnar habit of the rootstock which was Ballerina 'Polka'. Each grafted cv will follow its own growth habit. I just prune them according to my whim to keep the tree balanced. I also found out that its very easy to graft any apple variety into a Ballerina cv.

As Always....Happy Gardening :-)

Time: 10th February 2018 7:46pm

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Original Post was last edited: 10th February 2018 7:51pm

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Fruitylicious1 says...
Hi Slicko

I think the scion will still follow their own chilling requirement to induce bud break whatever the rootstock is. Again bud break is dependent with how much chilling hours they accumulate and how much heat hours they receive to break dormancy and also take into account the average winter and spring temperatures. Another variable is the cycle of temperature during dormancy period. Its a complicated business ascertaining dormancy and bud break among deciduous trees. Anyhow, we are just backyarders. Accurate dormancy and bud break predictions is the domain of big orchards to maximize their profit. As long as your trees are healthy and productive that's all it matters. What do you think?

Happy Gardening :-)

Time: 11th February 2018 7:46pm

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Peter62 says...
Thanks for all the info, good to know that it is possible at this latitude. Peter

Time: 12th February 2018 1:16pm

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Slicko says...
Hi Fruitylicious
I am inclined to believe that the scion will follow its genetic makeup and break dormancy when it would do in its normal conditions.
The complicating issue here is that I have them growing in conditions that are not their normal. I am growing varieties that have chilling requirements of around 600 hours and they get just over 100 here though they do seem to be working off their genetic schedule.
They do however give me fruit, much more than I expected but not so much to be a threat to commercial growers.
It will be interesting to see what they do next spring.
Mick

Time: 12th February 2018 4:47pm

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Fruitylicious1 says...
Hi Slicko

Apple trees are adaptable. They can thrive beyond their normal growing conditions as long as they receive a minimal amount of chilling hours as oppose to none they will produce but don't expect a high quality and over abundant harvest.

As Always....Happy GARDENING :-)

Time: 13th February 2018 8:59am

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