Nothing Could be Finer Than to Graft a 49er

Black Tartarian Cherry Tree

It's spring-time, and the peach trees are showing signs of unfurling those long-awaited pink buds that signals the onset of fresh fruit season.

Uh...Check that...

It's January in California. It's dry. It's dang warm. And, yes, the peach trees that dot the Bird Back 40 are showing an unmistakable sign that they will soon be in bloom. I suppose this is what happens when winter truly never comes. Oh -- yes -- we got our signature freeze conditions in December that put the stone fruit trees to sleep and zapped the juice clean out of my citrus trees. But other than that? It's been downright mild to say the least.

But one look at Folsom Stream (aka Folsom Lake) tells you that "not all is well" in God's Country. I've been around long enough to experience dry years in California. But I don't think I've witnessed anything like this. Rainfall is a stubborn thing that refuses to fall. Winter ski enthusiasts are all dressed up with nowhere local to go. Many local reservoirs, like Folsom Lake, are darn near empty.

Folsom Lake

The most telling sight that things are not the way they should be is that you can walk clear across the Bird Back 40 and not track mud anywhere. One needs water to make mud. Other than a few drops and spritzes here and there, I haven't seen it.

The dry weather, however, does offer some advantages. I CAN walk across the Bird Back 40 without sinking into a foot of mud. This is a vicious mud that has claimed its share of well-worn tennis shoes. The lack of mud means I can access every fruit-bearing tree nearby and not worry about sinking into a bog. This means I can get busy with the work of grafting.

49er Peach Scion Grafted to June Pride Peach Tree

I thought it to be a stroke of good luck last Sunday, when I stumbled across scions for the 49er Peach Tree at the annual California Rare Fruit Growers scion exchange. The 49ers would later engage the hated Seattle SeaHags in an epic battle for the NFC Crown. Finding scions for the heirloom tree known as the 49er Peach, I thought, was a stroke of good luck that guaranteed victory.

See how well that went?

But enough about the end of football season for many of us in Northern California. We have work to do! And that work involved grafting scions for the 49er and Sun Crest peach varieties. Both are quite famous. The 49er peach is considered an heirloom variety -- closely related to the Hale Peach. An author by the name of David Mas Masumoto would shine a light on the Sun Crest variety with his tribute: Epitaph for a Peach.

Sun Crest Peach Scion Grafted to O'Henry Peach Tree

Both are old. Both are treasured. But more importantly, both scions were taken from the Emma Prusch Farm Park located in San Jose. This 43.5 acre park, donated by Emma Prusch to the City of San Jose in 1962 to demonstrate the valley's agricultural past, features a rare fruit orchard where legendary fruit trees of the past reside and are well cared for. It's safe to say then, that any scion taken from Prusch Park is going to offer some great tasting fruit. This is provided my grafting skills have improved, which I hope they have.

Otherwise -- no 49er peach for us!

And so -- by taking advantage of the dry weather and solid ground, peach trees in the Bird Back 40 hold promising scions for the 49er and Sun Crest Peaches. One of the cherry trees holds several grafts for the Bing Cherry. Golden Delicious apple scions has been attached to the Granny Smith apple tree. You get the idea. Where there's a fruit tree? There's a scion attached to it.

Bing Cherry Graft on Black Tartarian Cherry Tree

Will these grafting experiments bear fruit? That's still anyone's guess. I suppose I'll find out in another month or two when most of the fruit trees really do begin to flower following a long winter's nap. This is the third time I've attempted to graft Bing cherries, one of my favorites, to the two cherry trees growing in the Bird Back 40. Here's hoping the third time is the charm. One of my Sun Crest grafts did actually sprout new growth last year (success!), only to curl up and die a month later (bummer!). Grafting is not an exact science. In other words, it always doesn't work. But when it does? It's an accomplishment to treasure.

One would think that winter is a slow time for gardening efforts, but it's not. This is also bare root season -- which happens to be the best time to plant bare-root fruit trees in the Bird Back 40. I always endeavor to add at least one or two new varieties to the backyard collection. Last year's effort involved Dave Wilson Fruit Cocktail trees -- five varieties of peaches grafted to one tree and four varieties of apricots grafted to another, single tree. This collection also includes the all important Aprium, a cross between an apricot and a plum that more closely resembles an apricot I'm told (pluots are also plum-apricot hybrids, but closely resemble plums). It has yet to yield fruit, so I'm hopeful that this season will be the charm, provided I can keep the thieving mockingbirds at bay (they mock me).

Grafting Tool (left) plus Grafting Tape

So what's new for this year? Something scrumptious -- I can tell you that much! As long as there's an empty spot to fill? There's a tree or three that can fill it. Room for raised beds that can handle more heirloom tomato plants? By golly, you betcha! The Bird Back 40 is always a "work in progress."

As for the Forty Niner peach scion? It's found a spot in original 49er Gold Rush Country. Seems like a good fit to me.

The Samad Method

Open! Open! Open!

I can feel it. Can you? I shouldn't be inside typing. I should be outside, digging in the dirt. The weather is warming. Do you feel that sunshine on your back? Does the sun look just a tad brighter than the normal winter blah? Look closely. Is that daffodil about to pop open?

Spring is on its way. I should be outside amending the raised beds in anticipation of the onion starters that will arrive next week from Dixondale Farms. After last year's grand experiment produced some whopper and good tasting onions, the wife that is Venus and I doubled up on the order this year. We ordered one bunch each of red, yellow and white. One bunch equals about sixty onion starter plants. That's 180 onions. Think that's enough?

Bing Cherry Graft to Royal Rainier Cherry Tree

The onset of this February blast of spring-like conditions also tells me something else: I'd better get moving and finish off the projects on the grafting front. With the stone fruit trees in dormant stage, Bill Bird has been playing the role of "Johnny Appleseed" in one Frankensteinish grafting effort after another. Why be stuck with two or three peach varieties when you can have 20?

I documented last year's amateurish grafting efforts here. Using my handy-dandy 3T EZ grafting tool, I set about the yard grafting scion branch after scion branch to one fruit tree after another. The result? Amazing success on the pluot and plum trees! But I struck out on the peach, cherry and nectarine grafting efforts. Not a single branch took. So what went wrong?

3T EZ Grafting Tool

Nothing, really. I'm still learning at this craft. Greater success comes with experience. The more you graft? The better you'll get at it. Your success rate will go up. So, when you look at it from that angle? I did pretty good. But I can do better. This year I am employing a new method learned at the hands of an Iranian-born Sacramento resident who taught me a grafting technique I'd never seen performed before.

His name is Samad (or Sam) Jaufeshan. And his Sacramento backyard is loaded with testament after testament to his grafting skills. When you come across a grower that has 42 different varieties of table grapes that have been grafted to less than ten grapevine stumps, it might be a good idea to stop, look and listen. I first met Sam during my miserable and failed attempts to graft Duke avocado tree scions to avocado root stock.

Standard Grafts Using the 3T EZ Tool

The 3T EZ grafting tool I had employed that first year is a good tool for beginners and it's a tool I will continue to use. But this type of grafting does have it's drawbacks. The V-Graft, for example, requires you to find a branch on a tree that is about the same size of the scion itself, which isn't always easy to do via the naked eye. Secondly, both the V and Omega grafts require you to pick a branch that is the farthest away from the fruit tree trunk. As you get closer to the trunk, the fruit bearing branches get to be very large -- an inch or more in diameter.

I do not recommend hacking off a large branch to perform a graft like this. It's likely to fail and leave you with a gaping hole in the tree itself. This is not a good idea.

Samad Method: Skin Grafting

But the "Samad Method" as I've come to call it now (also known as t-budding) does not rely upon grafting one branch to another. It doesn't require you to "search out" and find the "perfect fit." It allows you to graft on any branch, or even the trunk of the fruit tree itself. The "Samad Method" is simple, yet successful. I say this because I have three grafted Duke avocado trees to prove it. At least one of them will find a home in the Bird Back 40 this spring.

Let me back up a moment and say the Samad Method "seems" to be simple when you see it performed. However, like any grafting attempt, experience counts. My first few grafts using this method were, in a word, bad. But practice makes perfect. The last few grafting attempts have been right on the money.

Common Box Cutter Turned Skin Grafting Tool

Another plus? This grafting technique does not require the grafter to hack off fruit bearing branches. It also allows the grafter to make ten grafts instead of one or two. Every inch of the fruit tree in question is open to this method. You're not limited to one small branch that is at the furthest point from the tree trunk itself.

The "Samad Method" involves taking skin from one fruit tree scion branch and grafting that bit of skin to the skin of a fruit tree. Rather than "branch to branch," it's the skin of one bud cut from the donor branch to the skin of the recipient tree. This requires a couple of things: a bit of practice and razor sharp grafting tool. There are some grafters who employ actual surgical tools for this type of procedure, so caution is a must.

T-Cut Into Cherry Tree Branch

Each scion branch contains anywhere from five to ten buds. This means one donor branch can provide five to ten grafting opportunities rather than the ONE that is offered with the V or Omega grafts. This is why Venus' Royal Rainier Cherry tree holds eight Bing Cherry grafts instead of one or two. I don't need all eight to be successful, although that would be a riot, wouldn't it? No -- as long as one survives and grows -- I will have accomplished the task at hand.

This grafting technique allowed me to graft four Loring Peach buds onto the trunk of my O'Henry fruit tree. It allowed me to place four Suncrest Peach buds on the strongest branches of the June Pride Peach tree. Four of the strong, fruit bearing, branches on the Fuji Apple tree hold Braeburn Apple grafts. There's more to list here, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Bud Inserted Into T-Cut

And now the $64 question: Will this method work? I've seen it work in another backyard, but Sam has a 40 year head start on my growing and grafting efforts. As with any gardening experiment? Only time and patience will tell. When the first buds of spring emerge I'll either have a large smile on my face, or it's "more practice needed."