help my malus donald wyman crabapple

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by rosi64, Oct 13, 2008.

  1. rosi64

    rosi64 Member

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    Hi,After losing a dogwood last spring due to a poor site match,I planted 2 crabapples this month.The centurian is doing well,the donald wyman is not.I did crack a few tiny branches during the ride home.I just recently found them,so used some gardening tape that I was saving to use with burlap for my hydrangeas winter protection.I tried to splint the broken branches to a stronger area of the tree and hope it will heal.Was that the right thing to do ?
     
  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Especially if you just taped the branches to intact sections of stem success is highly unlikely. What you were attempting is called grafting. This usually involves tightly secured sections fitted together closely, with both ends wounded to produce a matching of the right kind of tissue, below the bark.
     
  3. rosi64

    rosi64 Member

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    Hi Ron,Thanks for your answer.I did try to approximate the ends tightly together.I just didn't know if it would set the tree up for some sort of fungal infection beneath the tape,due to air not reaching it.If the ends were correctly grafted,how long would it take for healing to occur so I could remove the tape?They are really tiny branches.
     
  4. rosi64

    rosi64 Member

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    After reading the definitive malus book by John Fiala,I decided to prune rather than keep the tape on the broken branches of my newly planted tree.It did say to make the cuts as clean as possible by using alcohol on the shears,which I did,and to make the cuts as straight as possible near the collar coming off the trunk area.One of the cuts was of a larger branch near the bottom so it was a little raggedy.It wasn't so big that I had to undercut it first.I tried to even it out a bit .Hopefully that one will heal properly.Coincidentally,the author of the book was my high school administrator back in the late 60's.I didn't realize it until I started reading it.If anyone out there has any more advice re: pruning I'd appreciate it.Thanks for your previous help.
     

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