When to gather scionwood
If you read between the
lines in my Homesteading
year post, you'll
figure out that late January or early February is a good time to
collect scionwood. It's handy to cut
scionwood before you start pruning so you take only wood the plant
doesn't need for the year ahead, and, of course, you need to get your
scionwood before buds begin to break.
I'm swapping scionwood (and
cuttings) with several readers this year and am enjoying the subtly
beautiful colors and patterns. I come in from the garden with
twigs in all my pockets to add to those already in labeled ziploc
bags. So I guess I'm not staying out of the garden in this icy
weather after all (although I did wait until the rime melted off the
twigs before cutting any).
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I would just like to throw my pennies worth at this one.
I have read all the books, on and on. The thing is, most of my fruit trees don't drop their leaves, and never really stop putting out new growth.
This of course was, what I first thought, a major hurdle to growing and reproducing my own trees. Well as with it supposedly being impossible to grow some of the trees I do grow, as pointed out by growers with way more knowledge than myself. Those in the know, don't always have all the knowledge.
It turns out, you can pretty much do all the things required to graft year round. It may be more convenient for those in proper climates to gather wood and graft at the "right" time, but things are a bit more not set in stone.
I for instance yesterday, grafted over 50 sprouted plum buds onto roots. I expect around 90%+ to survive and very likely give me some fruit next year.