Feb. 29: Poor Man's Orchard - How to Graft Apple Trees | Dream Farm w/ Bill Winke

I am really getting into the role that apple trees are playing on my new farm. They are zero maintenance long-term food sources that my deer seem to love! With that in mind, I am going to keep learning. My next step is to start grafting commercial apple varieties into a few of my wild trees. The deer won't care, but now we can get the best tasting apples for human consumption built on the foundation of these super hardy wild trees.
In this episode, Dr. Jesse Randall (now with Michigan State University) discusses how to graft your own apple trees and save tons of money compared to ready-grown nursery trees. You don't need much, just some EMLA 7 root stock that you can order online and cuttings of fresh growth (called scion wood) from a tree you want to clone. You can buy the scion wood online too, like I am doing. It is a simple process; you can make a lot of trees for the cost of just one nursey bought tree. It is the fun and affordable way to create your own Poor Man's Orchard.

[@harleytrumbo633]

Great guest. Lots of ways to skin a cat. Always interested in new techniques. I was blessed to be able to purchase a 244 acre farm back in 2018 as a result of living my entire life using the "poor man" approach to everything. I wrap my graft in parafilm tape first to hold the moisture in and then I follow up with a rubber band from Dollar General $1/bag. The tip cuts get a dab of Aleene's Tacky "no drip" Glue from Hobby Lobby $3/4oz bottle to maintain moisture. I wrap a piece of aluminum foil around the graft to reflect the possible damaging effects of the sun. I purchase my initial root stock and then propagate my own from it after that. I have an endless supply of free rootstock from now on. I get all my free scionwood from fruit tree suppliers like Tractor Supply, Farm & Home, Walmart etc. I speak with the managers in the early Spring and show them the branches that need to be pruned anyway and they are happy to allow me to remove one scion from any variety I want. I thank them by gifting them a tree later in the Fall for their personal use. Keep the "poor man" episodes coming.

[@smoothy66]

Consider "Liberty" as a variety as well. It is a great all around deer and eating apple.

[@bill-winke]

Good input. Thanks. Key on this farm is to use varieties that don't require maintenance beyond possibly pruning. I don't have time to babysit my apple trees. That is the beauty of these wild trees. They have found a way to thrive without an help from people even in spite of aggressive grazing pressure from cattle. Have a great day.

[@adamsmith8980]

Awesome! I have been interested in this for quite some time. But no one in the hunting industry seemed interested. Thank you for the information

[@RonMcCarl]

That was very interesting Bill, I've always wondered how this process was done. Thank you for putting out the best videos!

[@stevesly1285]

Another awesome video thanks for all you do.

[@shaneallison3370]

Another great informational episode. Thanks Bill

[@msptpreich7406]

Great topic.

[@MollyDogg1234]

Now that was a very interesting video. I've been spending quite a bit of money buying potted trees over the last couple years. I thoroughly enjoy planting fruit trees, so this was a very welcome video! Thank you

[@bill-winke]

I am going to try a bunch of grafting to my existing wild trees to see what I can do. Should be a very interesting process. Lots to learn. Have a great day.

[@joshuabouillon3452]

@@bill-winkeI’ve done the same with my dad a few years ago. He was the one that introduced me to the concept. He chose young saplings (wild have those heavy long thorns)that were no more than 3” thick. He lopped them off at 5ft - you could go lower but the deer will eat all the buds off the branches if not protected. Had a good success rate - would have been better if we had done it earlier in the spring.

[@damonraleigh]

Bill you are the man I've watched you from day one keep up the good work

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Damon. I appreciate the years of support and the kind words. Have a great day.

[@mitchz.6234]

Good info Bill...Thanks

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Mitch. Much appreciated.

[@joshuabouillon3452]

It can all be done on the cheap! Just takes time. Thanks for the great content.

[@bill-winke]

For sure. Thanks for the comment Joshua. Have a great day.

[@tfrost33elkhunter]

Very helpful!!! Thank you!

[@bill-winke]

Thaks TFrost. We appreciate the support and the comment. Have a great day.

[@Raised-Right]

Thanks for sharing. This looks interesting to try.

[@bill-winke]

Thanks for the support and the comment. Have a great day.

[@benjaminevenson8361]

Bill! This is excellent! Great channel!🍎🍎🍎

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Benjamin. I appreciate the support and the comment. Have a great day.

[@billgalante1181]

Another great video, very informative, always enjoy them, thank you so much.

[@bill-winke]

Thanks for the comment and the support, Bill. Have a great day.

[@march.4752]

This is great Bill! I've been trying to grow apples in West Texas for 8 years. What I've learned -the hard way, you have to plant (or graft) disease resistant trees. Not just something that tastes good & will grow in your zone. I've found you have to choose by disease resistance, then a disease resistant pollinator, are they diploids or triploids??? When will the flower? Will the flourish in your zone? Finally chill hours & fruit characteristics are the last things I take into consideration. Still testing varieties but Arkansas Black, Sundance, Sansa, Jonalicious & Dolgo Crabapple are getting established with weekly watering thru the summer. Cummins Nursery's website in New York is a wonderful resource. -Lots of good info. Best of luck!!!

[@bill-winke]

Thanks for the input. I am hearing that from a lot of people. I guess that is the beauty of these wild-grown trees. No help at all and decades of "only the strong survive" kind of fine-tuning has produced some very disease resistant trees. Cummins is also where I purchased my scion wood for the trees I am going to graft next week. Good luck to you also.

[@jarrodlambert3914]

Love these videos i did the same with a wild crab apple that i found way overgrown

[@bill-winke]

Jarrod, it is fun to do this stuff. More fun than I thought it would be. Good luck.

[@chrisking9424]

Great video Bill! Love Jesse Randall's teaching's, very clear and precise. So can you graft into mature established apple trees too?

[@bill-winke]

Chris, yes. He does a great job, due I am sure in no small part to his background in teaching. You can graft into mature trees. I do that in an upcoming episode, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks for the comment.

[@alexpinnow6509]

Good episode Bill, definitely makes sense if you want to propagate dozens of apple trees!

[@bill-winke]

I think to make a habitat difference, you need to generate a lot of apple trees. On the southern Iowa farm we planted about 60 and the actual survival rate was about 50%. We didn't have nearly enough. So being able to plant "a few hundred" and then tubing them would be a really good step, especially if you can't get to them with water easily. Survival rate is dictated to a large extent by rainfall so if you can plant a lot of them, some should make it. Planting cheaper trees makes that much easier. You need a lot of trees in an unmanaged setting to get enough in the end to make a difference. Good luck.

[@ronbonofiglio7654]

Saving the planet !!

[@bill-winke]

One apple tree at a time! Have a great day.

[@robgrubb420]

awesome

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Rob. Have a great day.

[@ronmacdougall9612]

Good info Bill,I will have to try this with my crabapple trees

[@bill-winke]

Should work Ron. It is called "bark grafting" or "rind grafting" when you do it on an existing tree. Look it up and see how it works. Good luck.

[@mikef4368]

Bill, great content. Will you be doing an update of all the oaks/acorns and apple trees that you planted?

[@bill-winke]

Yes sir. Give it a couple months for things to germinate and pop out and then I will update on those plantings.

[@travissmith-wz5nc]

Goldrush, enterprise, liberty, McIntosh, gala, Golden delicious. All fantastic. This yr ill be planting wolf river. Got 10 coming

[@kokadjooutdoors620]

Like honey crisp and cortland as well. Plus kieffer,Ayer’s and barlet pears

[@travissmith-wz5nc]

@@joehenz well I am trying to get to 100 trees. Have about 75 currently

[@randysanders6620]

Apples and pumpkins are some of my favorite attractants..

[@bill-winke]

This farm has them. I will plant a lot more pumpkins this year - around the edges of several of my plots. Good luck.

[@brianrobinson7972]

Awesome video again ! I just saw that your old property is up for sale !!

[@bill-winke]

I know. Man, that price is crazy. I didn't sell it for anywhere near that number. Makes me feel pretty stupid.

[@ryanfarmer5155]

Was that the Decatur county listing,.I just seen the other day! 1.8? 2 pieces I believe.

[@edwardclark5211]

Dream Big brother 🙏

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Edward. You too.

[@danweaver5787]

Bill I’m in Ohio and several years ago my buddy’s dad happened on a giant fruit tree in an old fence row while ground hog hunting on a farm. After researching it I found out it was an Asian pear tree. This tree has to be 50+ years old. It’s probably 45’ tall with a 45-50’ radius. It is by far the biggest fruit tree I’d ever seen and it was loaded with fruit. With a ladder and a long extension pole we knocked out probably half of the fruit and bagged roughly 450 lbs. (the farmer gave us permission) low and behold my buddy found another Asian pear tree on a piece of public land we hunt. This one much smaller but produces lots of fruit. The deer absolutely love these pears. They’re shaped like apples and have the combination of apple/pear taste and texture. After watching this video I’m going to try and graft several trees in hopes of them growing into big massive producers. Don’t know if you ever heard or seen Asian pears or if you have any suggestions? Thx for the video Dan Ps just got done pruning apple trees on on a lease. They’re all old trees but hopefully we can revive them

[@bill-winke]

Dan, I did some quick research and most sources say that you can't successfully graft Asian pear cuttings to apple trees but you could graft them to other pear trees. Some sources said it can work under certain conditions. I didn't go any deeper in my research than that. This method is called "Bark grafting" or "rind grafting". You might be onto something here! I see those potted Asian pear trees are $40 to $50 each and that is for a young tree. But, it seems that you have to be careful what you try to graft those cuttings to. Good luck.

[@danweaver5787]

@@bill-winke thx Bill. We are gonna try it out and see if it works. Dan

[@nhmountains5683]

Cummins Nursery in NY sells pear rootstock. The grafting process is the same as apples. Also, pear can be grafted to hawthorn but, what happens is the pear portion eventually outgrows the hawthorn and it dies. They maybe 30-40 years though. It’s still worth a try if you have a hawthorn

[@danweaver5787]

@@nhmountains5683 thanks

[@chrisstroud3094]

I started a orchard but didn't research my apples very well just bought what I could find locally , now im battling cedar rust. Thought about grafting to my rootstock with other varieties.

[@bill-winke]

A viewer from Kansas has an orchard and he specializes in disease tolerant trees. He is going to send me some scion wood from better tasting trees to try here for fun. I will give that a try in the next week, or so. Another friend, a big apple raiser in Virginia suggests Enterprise as the apple scion wood to try when grafting stating that is very disease resistant. Good luck.

[@MikeHughes-mv3qk]

I dip my scion wood down past the rootstock into paraffin to keep it from drying out.

[@bill-winke]

Can you just wax the union? Where the actual graft is located?

[@abeshoup6949]

Hi Bill, Mike might be planning on answering but I’m going to jump in haha. You want to cover the whole piece of scion wood in the grafting wax so that it doesn’t dry out through the cut on top. If you use wax, it’s also important to not let it get too hot when melting so you don’t deep fry your trees, 180° max. One other little pro-tip: wear some nitrile gloves for this process. Lots of professional producers including the guys at the apple farm I worked on say that the salt and oils on your bare skin can affect the union if you touch the freshly sliced wood. Sterility can’t be overlooked.

[@JTWy37]

Bill - love your content! I’d love someone’s input on grafting apple scions to a mature (15 yr old) crabapple. Use the same method or any other suggestions?

[@bill-winke]

That is what I am going to do next. Look up "bark grafting" or "rind grafting" online to see/read many examples of how this is done. Pretty cool process. I will be doing it on these wild trees with commercial (evolved) varieties of apple tree scion for fun and to see if I can create some really good apples in my wild orchard for human consumption. I will attempt in the next week to ten days and will try to film the process though I may screw it up as this will be my first attempt. Good luck.

[@kjc9293]

Witchcraft!!!!! Lol This was way more interesting than i thought it was gonna be.....looking forward to part 2!!!

[@bill-winke]

Yes, I thought that too. I am going to try to graft scion wood into bigger existing wild apple trees to see what I can produce here for top quality human consumption. It is cool stuff. And the deer really love them. A good combo.

[@trailwhite7897]

Hey Bill, on your mature fruit bearing trees, I noticed on a previous video the trees are growing wildly, simply stated as "unpruned", with way too much fruit for good tasting sweet apples. Dedicate some time now to pruning your mature trees (removing 30% of the tree by specific branch selection) and you're current trees may become the source of your own perfect snack.

[@trailwhite7897]

Adding to my comment, think of it this way: Let's say a tree can only bear 100 lbs of fruit. The tree has two choices, bear as much small fruit as possible toward reproduction... or a few really big fleshy sweet apples to protect the few seeds available in the fruit.

[@kyledexheimer6548]

All those little ones in the fields are great as already existing root stock for grafting onto. Prune them back and graft.

[@Kenzie13nicola]

Can you add onto existing established trees? I got a bunch of trees been in ground for 8-10 yrs producing hardly any fruit

[@bill-winke]

It is my understanding that you can but there be other reasons your trees aren't producing.

[@bill-winke]

Yes. That is the idea. I want to see it working and then I will go from there. I have 24 pieces of scion wood coming. That should give me about 50 grafts. I will try all sorts of combos to see what works and what doesn't.

[@travissmith-wz5nc]

@joenicola4609 I have had luck with 3-14-42 fertilizer instead of a nitrogen fertilizer. Also, azomite and fish & kelp. Seems like after 3 or 4 years in ground less nitrogen = more apples

[@kyledexheimer6548]

@@bill-winke apples are extremely heterozygous and what comes from seed won't resemble the parents. Considering the nearly wild ones are doing well it is probably the cows hammering them. You can take scion wood from your good trees and grafted on to the stumpy ones, then prune from there. If they are already in the ground and you have free scion wood from the good tree while pruning...

[@loisbuttray2937]

Any updates on the half apples you and the crew planted?

[@bill-winke]

I will know in a couple months. Give them time to germinate and pop out of the ground. We flagged a bunch of them so it will be easy to find them back.

[@robertfmccarthy2360]

Cooool

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Robert. Much appreciated.

[@mitchellgenz1373]

Great information Bill.

[@bill-winke]

Thanks Mitchell. I appreciate the comment.

[@jeremybayer5626]

You gonna add any Pear & chestnut trees to your farm? Or just sticking w/ different apple varieties ?

[@bill-winke]

Jeremy, I will try grafting some pears to my extra apple trees, probably next spring, and I will definitely plant some chestnuts. I was hoping to plant some this year, but will likely have to wait until next spring. I have a lot of work on my plate with the planting projects I am already committed to per my NRCS contract. Good luck.

[@RGrizzzz]

I gave up on Honeycrisp, as they need to be carefully sprayed for diseases. Consider varieties that don't need much spraying, based on what diseases are in your area.

[@bill-winke]

Good point Ron. I think the others are supposed to disease tolerant. At least that's what they said in the marketing language when I bought the wood.

[@travissmith-wz5nc]

Calcium Calcium Calcium when it comes to honeycrisp. Gypsum, lime, and wood ashes work. Not sure y but a local orchardist told me genetics make honeycrisp small and Calcium deficit. Google search backs up his information

[@RGrizzzz]

@@travissmith-wz5nc None of those will stop common apple diseases. Honeycrisp isn't an ideal no spray apple tree.

[@tommyhunter1817]

Yates!

[@bill-winke]

I have had others mention that one too. I will keep experimenting. I have hundreds of trees I can graft into!

[@bobmariano3731]

👍⚾️

[@bill-winke]

Thanks for the support Bob.

[@carrollsanders9376]

Graft an pear with an apple, and you will have giant sweet pears.

[@grinder881]

While I respected Iowa's Defense this year in College Football, I have to say Go BLUE aka National Champions.

[@bill-winke]

I think so too. Hard to argue with the National Championship rings!

[@getWISE22]

May be easier to just buy back the original farm for over $7 million

[@bill-winke]

No thanks! Wow! Will be interesting to see what they actually get but man who knew? Hindsight is 20/20 but I sold it for way less than that.

[@getWISE22]

You make sure to get a cut, your hunts and trail camera photos are what’s being used for advertising

[@marklam8548]

Please Dont stick it in your mouth... no germs please.!😅

[@bill-winke]

I don't think the tree branches have germs. Maybe my germs will kill the tree?

[@user-yw5oo8ld1p]

Very interesting learning to graft apple trees and fruit trees. My enjoyed that but I don't enjoy that Hunt for innocent animals. I find that very distressing to see videos about killing animals on KZbin. How can anybody take pleasure in killing innocent animals???? That is so barbaric This is year 2024 not 1724 not 1824 not 1924 You should try to make a living doing something else that you can afford to buy meat at the supermarket. Then kill innocent and take pleasure, killing animals that is very sick hiding out in the woods to kill Innocent DEER 🦌 HAVING YOURE WIFE AND DAUGHTER TRAINED TO KILL INNOCENT DEER 🦌 IS SO SICK AND DISGUSTING 😢😢 IF YOU PET THE DEER AND GOT CLOSE TO THEM YOU WOULDNT KILL THEM SO SAD

[@bill-winke]

You can't pet wild deer! These are wild animals. They are not zoo animals. We enjoy the quest to procure our own food and the hunt is a tradition of rural life that dates back to the start of history. There is nothing noble about buying meat at a grocery store. Those were once animals too! The ones we eat are a sustainable wild resource that isn't affected by any kind of growth hormones and they have never been fed antibiotics, etc. They are 100% wild, very healthy forms of protein.

[@craigkowalczyk3516]

So sad So sad you think like that liberal. Go eat some grass

[@seangaul4618]

Clover and apple trees!! Killer!!

[@bill-winke]

Amen, Sean. Have a great day.