Else Vierich led a Farmer to Farmer Workshop in April, 2012. She showed us around her orchard (part 1) where she has heritage varieties little Early Duchess and Wolf River. We then went inside where she show us how to make a graft (part 2).
Else Vierich very kindly hosted an apple grafting workshop at her home in Madoc township. She and her husband moved there around 35 years ago. Else learned how to graft apple trees from her father who was from Germany. There were several old MacIntosh apple trees in the orchard and an early Duchess. She has made grafts of other heritage apple trees in Madoc township including Wolf River.
After showing people around her orchard (Apple Grafting Part 1), she took us inside and showed us how to make a graft (Apple Grafting Part 2). In March she had collected some of last year’s twigs with good leaf buds from the trees she wanted to graft. She kept these in plastic bags with damp tissue paper in the fridge to prevent the buds from bursting.
She referenced a book called Fruit Tree Propagation produced by Agriculture Canada in the 1960s, which she finds to be very helpful. See below.
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