My Apple Grafting Experience

I attended a grafting workshop recently, held about 2 hours away at Foggy Ridge Cider (a small but highly acclaimed artisan hard apple cider producer) near the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was taught by several men from the Carrol County Extension Service and some of their Master Gardeners. What an interesting and fun experience!  

I took my camera, but forgot to check if the battery was charged. It wasn't (what a dunce!), so no personal photos from the class, but I found a few photos from Flickr that show some details.

Grapevine Rootstock, Photo from Southern Oregon Wine Institute

The class was limited to 15 participants, and they provided 5 rootstocks for each of us, and a choice of scion wood from about 25 apple varieties. In the photo above, the man is holding grapevine rootstock, but our apple rootstocks looked the same, just smaller diameter. (Scions are dormant twigs with buds taken from the tree you want to grow; it will grow on the rootstock into a genetic duplicate of the original tree, but with the size, vigor, and disease resistance of the chosen rootstock.)

Our class was provided M111 rootstock, which is a semi-dwarf tree size. ("Excellent all-around rootstock for apples. Induces early and heavy bearing. Tolerates wet soil, dry soil, poor soil. Resists woolly apple aphids and collar rot. Trees dwarfed to 85 % of standard.") Semi-dwarf apple trees can be pruned to keep them smaller, like the dwarf apple trees, but they will grow much more fruit than the dwarf rootstock. There are different rootstocks developed for a variety of trees; some are variety specific, and some will accept a graft from a different variety. For example, most (but not all) pears are grafted on quince rootstock.

I had already read a bunch of stuff about grafting, but it's a LOT harder to do the first time than it looks. (That might be because the rootstock they received for our class was a smaller diameter than they preferred, and which they lamented.) There are 2 important things to do. One is to get the cambium layers on at least one side of the mating pieces to line up. Otherwise, the graft will not grow. You have to also cut carefully so the cambium isn't damaged. (The cambium layer is the thin green layer you see if you scratch a bit of the bark off with your fingernail. It is only a couple of cells thick and produces new tissue for growth.) The other important thing is to be sure the buds on the scion are pointing UP from the graft!

a whip-tongue  or whip-cleft graft

Other than the problems due to our small-sized rootstock, grafting is really easy... at least the whip/cleft (shown above), and modified cleft grafting (below) which most of us ended up doing because of the skinny rootstock. The instructors didn't cover other types of grafts like bud grafting, chip grafting, and bridge grafting which is used to repair a damaged tree.

Modified Cleft Graft, sometimes called a "V" graft, photo by ghadjikriacou

My first graft cut was the "whip and tongue cleft", shown in the line drawing (above the Modified Cleft Graft photo). It was not easy with the thin rootstock, and very hard to get the tiny tongue cut and in place, so my other 4 grafts were cut like the Modified Cleft Graft shown just above. Much easier!!

 

I quickly learned my trusty pocket knife won't do the job of cutting grafts! A grafting knife (they had many for us to use) is only beveled and sharpened on one side... and sharp as the devil, so careful handling and cutting is necessary. The blade shape made me think of my grandfather's old shaving razor, which is also beveled and sharpened on only one side (the grafting knives they had were not the folding kind, although folding ones are available, and are safer to carry in your pocket out into the field). 

My grandfather's razor was honed on a leather strap, just as the grafting knives are honed. I still have my grandfather's razor and plan to try it out the next time I have the opportunity to do any grafting, but I'll probably purchase a good folding grafting knife. Here's a short video on How to Sharpen a Grafting Knife.

They also had a couple of fancy tools to make the cuts, but I chose not to use one. I figured I'd best learn with a knife since grafting has been done for centuries without a fancy and possibly expensive tool.

After we got each graft taped tightly to keep the matching cambium layers in contact (we used masking tape, although electrical tape would also work, but NOT duct tape), the graft needs to be waxed. I chose to bring mine home before waxing because I already had wax at home, AND I could drive 2-3 hours home without sticky fingers!

You can buy expensive grafting wax, but they used a toilet bowl wax ring... much cheaper and just as effective. The taped graft area gets covered well with wax, as does the very top of the scion to prevent moisture loss. The instructors said the wax may have to be replenished 2-3 times over the summer. (Probably melts in summer heat.)

These are my grafts, before waxing (what looks like double stems are just shadows on the blanket)

Grafts after waxing

All 5 of my grafts were soaked in water for 2-3 days to awaken dormancy, and then were potted. They will need to stay in pots for a year or so until they get some size, but for the class cost of $15 which included my 5 apple trees to bring home, it was a good deal. (Plus my gas for the trip, but still cheaper than hands-on class lessons, and then buying potted grafted trees + shipping!)

All the scion varieties I selected are vintage apples, and the one I'm most excited to have (hoping especially that my graft on that one takes) is a crabapple developed by Thos. Jefferson, who grew them in abundance for hard cider: the Hewe's Crab, sometimes called the Virginia Crab.

I only wish we'd had a list in advance of the varieties for choice. One I chose is an early bloomer (which I didn't know when we chose our scions) and we usually have late frosts where I live.

These are the varieties I grafted:

Shockley (a North Georgia heirloom, keeps its shape well for pies and preserves) Ashmead's Kernel (highly-valued apple for juicing and hard cider)

Cox's Orange Pippin (classic dessert apple, great for fresh eating, pies and cider)

Arkansas Black (very long-keeping tart apple from Arkansas, thought to be a seedling of Winesap)

Hewe's Crab (produces a delicious cinnamon-flavored cider that is both sugary and pungent. Thos. Jefferson planted his entire north orchard exclusively with this variety)

Did you know melons, eggplants and tomatoes can be grafted on hardy rootstock to reduce diseases and increase yields? (You won't find those plants in garden centers; those are grafted by growers for their own use.) There are a few companies who grow and sell the specific rootstocks for each of them.

I'll have a post on grafting vegetables in a few days.

King Luscious for Apple Pie

Photo from http://adamapples.blogspot.com/search/label/King%20Lush

Some years ago, a friend and her 2 children were staying with me for a couple of months at my home in Asheville, NC while she tried to make some decisions. I came home one day in late October to find an apple pie for a dessert that night. Now don't get me wrong... I like pies just fine, but apple pies do not excite me. It's the same with pumpkin pies. They all seem to taste pretty much alike. Now, give me a made-from scratch real Key Lime pie, or homemade custard pie, peach pie or lemon meringue pie not made with a pudding mix... and we're talking PIES!

However, the pie my friend made really changed my thinking about apple pie. I don't remember ever having an apple pie tasting that delicious! When I asked her about it, the pie recipe was just a standard recipe as far as the spices. What was different was the variety of apples she bought at the big Farmer's Market, on the recommendation of the vendor. 

The apple was King Luscious, discovered near Hendersonville, NC in the 1930's, and known around the area for delicious pies. It is thought the King Luscious might be a cross between a Stayman and the Wolf River apple; they are large apples, with a unique juicy flavor, fine-grained yellowish-white flesh, and a red and green skin.

Later that week I went back to the market for more of those apples, but they were sold out. By coincidence, I caught a Martha Stewart show soon afterwards, and the show was about apple pies. Martha was making a pie with King Luscious apples, saying they were the best apples she had ever used for pies!

The next year I moved to another state, my sole source for King Luscious apples now in the past.

Finally, about four years ago I found an historic orchard just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near the TN/NC border that still has a few King Luscious apples in the old orchard the new owners are reclaiming for the many Heritage apples grown there. I bought a few King Luscious that year (they didn't have many), but haven't been able to make the long trip back since then.

Early this November I was on a trip through the Virginia foothill mountains, and stopped at a few apple shacks looking for crab apples to make crab apple butter. (Yum!) No luck finding any, but quite by accident I did find a few King Luscious aka King Lush at one place! I bought a peck and a half, about 15 pounds, and they are now stored in my root cellar until I have time to make an apple pie! This apple stores well for several months, so I have ample time to make more than one apple pie. None before Thanksgiving, though... too much to do.

Hard Cider

I finally found some un-pasteurized apple cider to make some hard cider, which will ultimately become apple cider vinegar. I pay around $9 for a quart of Bragg's Raw Apple Cider vinegar, and I bought this gallon of raw apple cider for $7, plus I paid about $1.50 for the yeast to ferment it, so $2.13 for a quart of raw apple cider vinegar by making it myself.

After reading many recipes and forums online about making hard cider, I opted to use the yeast used to make a lager since the reviews were excellent. I could have used a wine yeast like a champagne yeast, but the lager yeast will do better in the secondary fermentation at cooler temperatures than a wine yeast.

The other fruit wines I started in my quest to make real fruit vinegars are now sitting quietly, and (hopefully) mellowing towards spring for tasting and bottling. They are in my pantry but I may move them to the root cellar to free up some space. Moving them to a cooler temperature will probably add a couple of months to the finishing time, but that's okay with me.

There is nothing more to post on this hard cider until spring, because now it just needs to sit and perk. I will do updates on all the fruit vinegars when they become ready, or become compost!

Storing Apples

Apples store quite well* in my root cellar although in the 4 winters I've been here, I haven't had many to store. On my recent trip to Charlottesville, I stopped at Drumheller's Orchard in the Blue Ridge foothills near Lovingston, VA. I have bought peaches there several times but this is the first year I have been up there during apple season. The folks there are super friendly and helpful; their peaches have always been outstanding so I assumed their apples would be also.

On my way up, I stopped for apple samples that fit my criteria: tart taste, and long storage time. I sampled the selections during my stay in Charlottesville, and stopped back at the orchard on my way home to buy 2 of the 3 varieties I sampled. 

I bought a half bushel of Albemarle Pippins, my favorite of the bunch. I would have bought a whole bushel of those, except the few remaining in the big wooden bins had been pretty well picked over. The other variety I bought was a half-bushel of Pink Lady apples. The taste was good but not quite as spectacular as the Pippin, although it keeps longer.

Since I often go for a week or two without opening the root cellar, sometimes food has spoiled from an overlooked bad spot. I didn't want that to happen with these apples, and the way to prevent spoilage is two-fold. The most important is to buy fruit that is unblemished and unbruised. The second thing is to wrap them individually so if one spoils, it doesn't affect all the others.

Pink Lady apple, ready to wrap

You can wrap the apples in newspaper, but if you do, be sure to avoid any with colored inks. (The colored inks contain heavy metals.) Our local paper has color on every page, even the classified, so I ended up buying tissue paper. The Dollar Store had packs of 40 sheets (20" x 20") for $1, and I cut them down to about 14" x 14" for ease in handling.

Most of my apples still had the stems so I had to place the apples on the tissue paper stem-up so the stem didn't poke a hole in the paper. (The objective of wrapping is to keep the apples from touching each other, so tears are a no-no.) Gently twist the paper corners around the apple, doesn't have to be tight, just enough to keep the apple inside the paper.

Stack them in a container to keep them off the floor. A cardboard box would work just fine.

Pink Lady Apples

Since I have 2 varieties of apples, I left a single apple on the top to identify the contents.

Albemarle Pippin Apples

I'm really glad I decided to wrap my apples. Close inspection revealed about a dozen Pippins that have tiny bits of damage, mostly some small nicks, but enough that I suspect they would not keep well. I cannot blame anyone since I picked them out myself. To be honest, it was a little dark in the apple house, and that bin was empty almost down to the bottom. I left the slightly damaged apples on top of the basket so I'd know which ones I need to use first.


Apples are now in the cool, dark root cellar, safe winter storage for several months!

*Note: Apples should not be stored with potatoes in the same room. As they age, potatoes release an otherwise harmless gas that makes apples spoil faster.

Apples, and Cider Apples

Photo from mp eds' photostream

Neck and neck with brewing beer at home is the resurgence of making cider. Whether sweet, hard, blended, or sparkling, trend watchers say cider, once the preferred beverage of early America, could very well become the drink of the future. (Hard cider is the fastest growing segment of the beverage industry.)

More than I ever wanted to know about apples... that's what the internet offers. What's missing is information on the majority of the 'missing apples', those great old apple varieties we have let go by the wayside. There once were 15,000 -16,000 named, grown and eaten varieties in North America, and today fewer than 20% (+/-3,000 varieties) remain; some sources say not more than 1,000.

The big and beautiful Red Delicious is the stereotypical but tasteless apple that has come to dominate the supermarket shelf, comprising more than 40 percent of all apples sold in big box chain stores. With today’s mass marketing, only a handful of large nurseries control what gets planted in large commercial orchards. And they want 'pretty', not taste.

Where variety really matters, though, is in finding cider apples. GOOD cider apples. Not all apples are suitable for making cider, whether just pressed apples for fresh cider, or fermented hard cider. Take a look at apples broken down by their best use... There are apples for cooking (think pies!), apples for eating, and cider apples. In 2 of those categories, I can only show a few named varieties still in use because we have lost SO many, notably in the cider apples, but also in the baking apples.

For a baking apple, you want a flavorful yet firm apple, because heat breaks down an apple's structure. Gala, Braeburn, Northern Spy, Rome and Granny Smith can hold their shape (and taste) in baking pies and cobblers. So will Gravenstein, Pippens, King, Snow and Wealthy. The apple I prefer for superb pies is King Luscious (and I don't know if it is related to the King apple). I only know of one place that still grows a few, although they were almost lost before the old orchard was purchased by someone with vision; it's on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 100 miles from here.

For applesauce you'll want a softer variety like McIntosh, maybe mixed with a few Red Delicious. Early apples good for applesauce also include Lodi, Melba and Transparent. The harder Granny Smith apples will give you a chunkier sauce.

Many of the mid-season and early fall apples do not keep well, and are used for juice. Overripe, soft and/or pulpy apples make for poorly flavored juice. Under-ripe apples make a starchy juice. You can check for ripeness by cutting one apple: if the seeds are still mostly or even somewhat white, they are under-ripe. As the apple matures, the seeds turn light brown. Late varieties have darker seeds when fully mature.

Cider traditionally was made from a mix of three distinct apple tastes, in equal volume: sweet, bittersweet, and sharp, with each varying in the amounts of tannins and acidity. However, if you were making a single variety apple cider, the bittersweets are best. Today, you might only find and mix sweeter apples like Baldwin or Delicious with tart apples like Jonagold or Winesap.

Some older varieties of bittersweet apples are still around, if you can find them, but fewer bittersweet apples still exist compared to Sharp/Bittersharp, and even more Sweet varieties still exist. Probably fewer bittersweets because cider fell out of favor, and cider apples are not good eating apples. These variety lists below come from the UK site, The Real Cider and Perry Page, although many of these varieties were brought into the US in the 1800's. (Perry is hard pear cider.)

Bittersweet apples: Brown Snout, Improved Dove, Chisel Jersey, Knotted Kernel, Somerset Red, Fillbarrel, Tramlett’s Bitter, Harry Master’s Jersey, Yarlington Mill, Dabinette and Kingston Black. Raintree in the US Pacific Northwest carries the last two. They also carry Foxwhelp and Tompkins King. Fedco (which is a highly-regarded co-op) in Maine carries several cider apples, but they are usually sold out by Feb. and the website doesn't list the varieties when none are available. You may, however, download the 2010 fruit tree catalog on this page. It lists apples by taste, and use.

For some Sharp and Bittersharp varieties, click here. For some Sweet Apple varieties, click here.

So, if you get really interested in making good, old fashioned cider (which you can freeze if you don't want to make hard cider), you can plant some heirloom varieties. Slow Food USA, via the Ark of Taste, is trying to save and renew interest in heritage foods of all kinds. This year, their RAFT (Renewing America's Food Traditions) Alliance is focusing on heritage apples by holding workshops on cutting, grafting, documenting tree histories, and distributing scion wood of the most flavorful historic fruit varieties. They recently held a workshop in Madison, WI with 20 heirloom apple experts from across the nation to discuss status, and efforts to conserve and promote heirloom apples, and the Madison, WI group has started planting apples in earnest.

You can download the Forgotten Fruits Manual and Manifesto - Apples here.

Why Raw Apple Cider Vinegar?

Photo from AndyRob's photostream

Raw, unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar (not the sterile, distilled, nutrition-less apple cider vinegar sold in grocery stores) has mainly been used for centuries for its health benefits (and some surprising benefits in and around the household). I have been buying and using Bragg's apple cider vinegar off and on for at least 40 years, but only lately have I become convinced that this unassuming vinegar is potent for my health. (There are other brands, but Bragg's has national distribution in natural foods stores and in many grocery stores, and has been around almost a hundred years.)

Now I have learned I can make it myself. There are 2 basic processes; one is by the purists who first make real hard (alcoholic) cider as the base. The other, easy home-method, is starting with freshly pressed apple juice, adding the culture and processing...

I'll cover both ways in following posts, but first... why should anyone use raw, organic ACV daily, what will it do for each of us, and why bother to make my own?

There is so much emphasis today in marketing about everything being pasteurized or irradiated to become sterile (thus devoid of health benefits) that I'm sure an immediate concern, if you are unfamiliar with raw apple cider vinegar, is that raw ACV is not pasteurized. Vinegars in general, raw or distilled, have antiseptic properties. Raw vinegar is perfectly safe because pathogens cannot live in that acidic solution. Because it is raw, it contains all the natural acids, enzymes, minerals and nutrients that are destroyed from distilled apple cider vinegar in processing.

Raw apple cider vinegar taken internally helps the body with digestion, metabolism of minerals (esp. calcium), balance pH, support the immune system, and is said to help control weight and help longevity. Applied externally, it soothes skin problems and helps aching muscles.

Around the house, raw vinegar is an excellent all-purpose cleaner, particularly in the kitchen and bath. Use it in cooking by adding a bit to the water for poaching eggs... it helps them clump. Add some to potato or cauliflower cooking water to keep veggies whiter. Add some to gelatin to help hold it firm, and to the water for boiling eggs so the whites don't leak from cracks in the shells.

Use raw vinegar to clean galvanized metal objects before painting. Add some to animal/pet water to reduce pet odors, keep coats shiny, and promote health.

Photo from AndyRob's photostream

Bragg's advertises their "Bragg Healthy Cocktail" is designed to flush out wastes that are clogging the organs of elimination, the bowels, lungs, skin, and the kidneys. Take it at least twice a day, and you will start to see changes like increased energy, soft skin, and decreased muscle and joint aches from exercise. Make sure you use raw, organic vinegar, never dead, distilled vinegar because the natural enzymes, minerals, and nutrients are destroyed in the distilling process. Any vinegar that is clear and has no "mother" (the strand-like substance in the bottom of the bottle) has no nutritional value. Natural raw vinegar should be pungent, with a rich, brownish color and a visible "mother."

Patricia Bragg, N.D. Ph.D., Health Crusader and daughter of founder Paul Bragg, recommends a "healthy cocktail" of 2 teaspoons of their ACV twice daily, in distilled water, sweetened with a natural sugar if you prefer. I don't sweeten mine as I rather like the taste, and  I don't use distilled water, although I do avoid using chlorinated water. I took 2 tsp. twice daily for about a month, and now generally take it just in the mornings, or just at bedtime. There was an almost immediate, noticeable difference in how I felt.

It seems to me that something used for great benefits for so many centuries deserves merit. ACV was used by the Egyptians as far back as 3000 BCE, used as well as the Babylonians, and Julius Caesar's army used a vinegar tonic to stay healthy and fight off disease. Hippocrates, in 400 BC, treated his patients with apple cider vinegar.

The Greeks and Romans kept vinegar 'vessels' for healing, and for flavoring and preserving food. In Paris, vinegar was sold by the barrel and was used for deodorant, and for a delicious tonic drink to keep the body ageless. Even Christopher Columbus took vinegar barrels for his sailors on his long sea travels to prevent scurvy and disinfect wounds.

There is nothing 'magical' in Bragg's ACV; it is simply a raw apple cider vinegar (which you can make) with a bit of the 'mother' still in the bottle. ('Mother' is the substance containing various bacteria that forms on the surface of liquids undergoing acetous fermentation. It can be added to wine, cider, etc. to promote vinegar formation. Also called "mother of vinegar."