Bark Grafting Pawpaw trees

Previously I have talked mostly about bark grafting pecans, but if you have a tree with large enough diameter you can bark graft many other tree species relatively easily. Earlier this year I bark grafted clusters of pawpaw trees in a wooded area on our farm and I wasn't quite sure how the trees and grafts would respond as the weather turned hot and dry very quickly after I grafted them in our part of Missouri. Additionally most of the trees were in heavy shade and some were likely root suckers from other nearby pawpaw trees.

After going through today and inspecting the grafts I am very satisfied with how things turned out. I grafted 10 pawpaw trees in the wooded areas and had 100% success with bark grafts. Next year I will definitely be grafting more trees around the successful grafts from this year and thinning out other trees around them to eventually establish an orchard in partial shade along this riparian area.

The steps I took grafting these are as follows:

1) Pick a tree with a diameter suitable for bark grafting. In my case I didn't pick any trees that were less than 1 inch in diameter and I really liked them to be 2+ inches.

2) Cut down pawpaw trees within 6 feet of the tree you are grafting. I did this because I was worried that pawpaw trees that were closer than 6 feet would be connected to this tree and if I cut the top off to bark graft my tree it would stimulate the growth of nearby trees at the expense of my grafted tree.

3) Graft it.

4) Come back to it within a month check the graft and cut off branches and new growth below the graft if it was a successful graft.

Here are some pictures of the grafts after about 5 weeks. They have all grown very rapidly and have put on between 1-2 feet of new growth from the grafts.

Looking at the seasons grafts - Pecan

It is time to start keeping an eye on the grafts done earlier in the season and making sure development is on track. In an earlier post I talked about grafting I had done earlier this year on pecans, persimmons, and peaches. Almost all of my pecan grafts were bark grafts where I cut off the top of sizeable young trees and grafted 'Kanza', 'Major', and 'Yates 68' pecan scions onto my native rootstock. These trees I grafted them onto were wild trees that had grown up in old field and pasture areas and had just been left to grow by previous owners.

I had good luck this year with bark grafts on pecans and most of them are growing quite well (would probably be doing even better if we had some rain!). The one in this picture has grown from both buds, has already grown over a foot since it was grafted in May, and has produced catkins AND female flowers. These female flowers are what later turn into pecans if they are pollinated. Grafted trees will begin producing nuts MUCH sooner than pecan trees grown from seed, especially if they are grown on a desirable site to help them grow quickly and given some basic care and attention. Since my tree is so small however I don't want it using all of it's energy in flowering and attempting to produce a few nuts, I want it to grow large and tall as fast as it can. So I will go through and cut off all of the female flowers. Attached is a picture of the graft and male catkins (see that organ in the lower half of the picture covered in pollen = catkin).