[nafex] update on "long summer yellow apple"

You might recall that last year I wanted to rescue an apple tree my uncle grew from a seedling. It has no commercial potential, as the apples get soft within hours of picking them. But it is very tasty, and ripens over a very long period, a few apples a day, which is a nice trait in a backyard. The only time I had access to the tree was during (or maybe right after) bloom. So I travelled up to there, cut some very large branches that had (what looked like) graftable twigs, stripped all the leaves off them, put them in a plastic garbage bag, and brought them home. I grafted them late in the afternoon of the day I cut them.

Rather to my surprise, most of the grafts took. One graft to a seedling crab that I didn't adequately protect from drying out died, and the one graft I made to G11 also failed. But all three grafts I made to M7 succeeded, as did another graft to a random crab-apple. So now I have two cleft grafts and a bud graft (on M7) just breaking bud on potted trees.

All of the rootstocks seem to be waking up this year, despite a lot of predation from rabbits last year. None of them ever got a lot of leaves, so I hope they do okay. I have obtained better rabbit fencing for them this spring.

I have a couple of questions about the chip-bud. I actually put three chips on one rootstock. The bottom one seems not to have taken, the middle one looks alive, but dormant, and the top one is at green tip, and looks healthy. A lot of other buds from the stock have also started to sprout. I've been pinching off anything above the graft, including a twig I let grow last year to keep the rootstock alive. Should I pinch off ALL the other bud sprouting? Or let the lower ones be for now?

Also, The chip that is sprouting is near the top of the plant, and above it is an ugly dead stump. The leader died back to a little above the living chip, which is opposite a set of buds from the rootstock, which I broke off this spring, but allowed to grow last year. Should I just leave it alone? Should I ever try to clean that up? If so, how do I do that, and when do I do it?

Thanks,
Ginda Fisher
eastern MA, where spring has spring with a vengeance, after a long, snowy winter.
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