It is amazing that from such a little bud such good sized trees can be produced. In the palm of the hand is the bud, a Damson, and part of a stem known as a chip bud that will be attached to the side of a compatible rootstock, in this case plum rootstock St Julien A but there are others.
The bud is sealed over with tape to prevent drying out and ensure callousing. This is all done in August. It cannot be done much earlier and doing it later will result in failure, so no summer holidays for us!
The results are amazing. A year later, given success which is usually high, tall trees will have grown from a single tiny bud! In this case the trees are Damsons, Sweet Damson in fact. (Damsons are not usually sweet but this one is!) Many trees are up to head height already and still growing.
Damsons are shrubby trees with lots of branching. To make a nice damson tree remove a lot of the lower side branching & reduce the main stem to about 1.2m / 4′ to encourage branching at a nice height above ground level. Shorten any retained branches. Do this after planting at the end of the winter.
I have a number of your root stocks which are extremly healthy, St Julien A, Quince A and Gisela 5.
The stocks were planted out into Polly Pots for the first year then the following late Summer I did the double Scion grafting. That was Last Summer. This Spring should be the bud growth year. It is my intention to grow a Belgian fence.
My question is :-
What do I do to the root stock. Do I cut back the rootstock above the Scions to direct the growth energy to the Scion, tip prune the stock or do I do nothing until I see the Scion growth per stock. Then if everything has taken. Then cut above the Scion to give me the V shape for the fence.
Hi Dave
I assume you ‘budded’ the rootstocks last summer with two buds on each rootstock, one on each side, budding them a short way up the stem from the compost level. Assuming they have been successful and calloused cut the top growth off just above the buds. There is no need to do it now, we leave it until February. After this you may wish to repot the rootsocks so they have plenty of nutrition and room to grow into during the year to come. In May grow will start and this is when you will need to be ready with canes to ensure a good V shape.
I hope this is helpful. Kelvin.