It's Time To Get Ready For The Spring Vaccination

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The beginning of January delighted gardeners with strong frost and snow. After all, such weather creates optimal conditions to start cutting and harvesting cuttings for the March procedure of grafting trees in the garden right now. Due to negative temperatures, the hardening of the wood of young shoots is better. This means that the quality of storage of cuttings increases until the time of future grafting

When to wait for spring?

But why not postpone this work until warm spring days, and cut the cuttings just before the grafting procedure, an inexperienced gardener asks. The whole secret lies in the fact that the scion at this moment should be at rest. At the same time, the tree should wake up by this time. There is no point in cutting off the shoot for grafting from the plant, when the process of sap flow has already begun.

But, as with every rule, there are exceptions. Cuttings of apple and pear trees are recommended to be harvested in the first days of spring. But it is impossible to delay with this, it is necessary to have time before bud break.

Where can I get the cutting?

Most gardeners know that cuttings are cut from annual shoots for grafting. But if these are not enough, you can take it for two-year branches. In order for the grafting to be successful and have a positive effect on the harvest, you need to keep in mind some of the nuances:

• shoots are best taken from branches well lit by the sun's rays - those that have a southern direction of growth;

• it is preferable to choose cuttings from the top of the crown, since the shoots near the base of the skeletal branches do not have a high yield;

• a strong young shoot should be well lignified and more than 5 mm in diameter;

• cuttings for grafting are cut into a length of about 35 cm and make sure that each has 3-5 buds;

• You can also use shoots from trees grafted last year.

Cuttings with signs of disease or pest damage are not suitable for grafting, because we are going to improve the quality of the crop. Pay attention to the color of the shoot. Darkened wood indicates frost damage to the cuttings - such material may not take root on the rootstock. Often stone fruit cultures suffer from this, so you need to be especially careful about them.

From the south to the north

If shoots are cut from the south side of the crown, then the cuttings are stored on their site in the snow on the north side of the buildings. The sun rarely comes in here, and the snow will melt noticeably slower than in other parts of the garden.

Before storage, the cuttings are tied in bunches with a marking of the cutting time and the name of the variety. The gardener still has many worries ahead. And so that this work does not go down the drain, it is better not to try to keep all the important information in memory, but to entrust it to a more reliable source.

For the storage device, the snow must be tamped down and bundles of cuttings must be placed on this site. From above, the twigs are covered with snow about 50 cm thick. To extend the snow melting time, the snow shoulder is thickly sprinkled with sawdust. A layer of peat is also suitable as an insulating material.

If you are in a hurry

When the cuttings were cut earlier, before the onset of frost, they are stored in the refrigerator. But experts do not recommend keeping them in such storage for more than a month. If snow appears outside the window, the grafting material must be moved to the snow pile.

Cuttings can also be stored in cellars and basements at an air temperature of +3 to -3 ° C. The bundles are immersed with the cut down in a bucket of wet sand and piled up on the sides with sawdust. You can arrange storage in an unheated room. Under these conditions, the bundles are wrapped first in a damp cloth or old burlap, and then in polyethylene.

It is recommended that the grafting material be checked periodically. If the burlap is dry, it must be moistened. When molds are visible on the cuttings, the fabric is thoroughly rinsed in cold water.