By Marion Bryce, Erewash Tree Warden
On a bitterly cold day in February we met at Amber Valley Vineyards in Wessington, Derbyshire, to learn how to graft apple trees. The orchard was planted about fifteen years ago by Barry Lewis, together with a wildflower meadow, and has an assortment of cider apple trees, eating apple trees and many heritage varieties, particularly locally bred varieties such as Langton’s Nonsuch, Sweetings and Leicester Burton Pippin (some of which had been difficult to trace and were the last of their kind!) Fellow Tree Warden, Zita, and I attended the course as members of the Erewash Tree Warden Network, supported by The Tree Council’s Golden Orchards project.
While Barry busied himself feeding a firepit and boiling a huge kettle for tea and coffee, Melanie of the Leicestershire Heritage Apple Project took over with a general talk about fruit tree grafting. We were also given an illustrated booklet produced by the group called ‘Grafting Notes’. Grafting is the technique of joining two living parts of the same or compatible species to make a clone of one of the donors which is called the scion, the other donor is called the rootstock and is used to limit size, provide vigour or confer disease resistance.
We all practised v-cleft grafting on apple twigs provided – it really was quite difficult – especially with frozen fingers in thick gloves, though we were assured that ease came with practice. There was a choice of pre-cut scions from various heritage trees, and Zita and I went straight for the scions from a clone of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree at Woolsthorpe. The tree which was the inspiration behind the theory of gravity. The second part of the grafting equation were sturdy well-rooted M106 rootstocks. Suitable for clay soils, they are semi-dwarfing, with height and spread to be controlled by annual pruning. A hand’s length above the root is all that is needed for the graft. Any length of the rootstock branch not needed may be planted directly into soil to root and form a new rootstock and used next year. We now had our own grafted heritage apple trees! ‘Take it home and plant it in compost, always use square pots and keep them outside,’ we were instructed by Melanie.
It is a sad fact that these grafting techniques will generally only succeed in the tree’s dormant season and in today’s warming climate this is now confined to January and February, which is why we were outside on such a freezing cold day. But by the end of the workshop, we were so busy we had forgotten the cold and then, even though we were well over the allocated time, a new refreshment arrived, a cool cup of Crazy Cat Cider which is produced commercially by Amber Valley Vineyards – our host for the day. A big cheers to Erewash Tree Wardens and The Tree Council who supported us with this valuable training opportunity.
Image: Marion checking tree stakes at the Orchid Wood Golden Orchard May 2024
