Re: [nafex] Grafting - nurse limbs and apical dominance

If I were doing it I would cut them off. My 2nd choice would be to cut
the tips off to reduce the apical dominance affect. I suspect if you
pulled them over horizontally they would send up a lot of "rain shoots"
in the long run reducing the energy to the graft.

Jerry

On 4/19/2015 3:32 PM, Elizabeth Hilborn wrote:
> I am grafting to apple and pear rootstock suckers. The original
> grafted trees are gone. Last year I stripped off growth on the shoots
> arising below the graft, but had no takes. This year, I selected
> suckers with side shoots which I left to use as nurse limbs in the
> hope that increased shoot vigor would give me better results.
>
> Question- some of the nurse limb apices are higher than the apical
> shoot of the graft. I have only found one source that suggests that
> one does not prune the nurse limb until the graft takes. But I am
> afraid that the apical dominance effect of the nurse limb will prevent
> my grafts from taking. My only thought is to 'split the difference' -
> to tie nurse limbs down horizontally.
>
> Does anyone have experience with this issue?
>
> Betsy Hilborn

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