What can I graft onto my out-of-control cherry tree rootstock?

April 5, 2021 10:36 AM

I have a cherry tree . The scion died awhile back, but the rootstock has gone completely bananas. I hate to get rid of it completely...

...as it generally looks nice and is absolutely thriving in an area where we've had mixed success with trees.

This tree in particular was one of 4 tart cherries (2 each of Montmorency and another variety which I've forgotten). I believe the rootstock is Mahaleb - the Seek app seems to think so, anyway.

The other three trees are growing, but very slowly. It occurred to me that I could try grafting scions from the slow, lagging trees to the this vigorously growing beast, which is now probably 10-15' tall. Maybe jumpstart things a bit?

Is this a good idea? Bad idea? I've never tried grafting before, but this seems like a low-impact way to try it out.

posted by jquinby to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Response by poster: (ah - and if you've got any immediate gotchas with respect to grafting fruit trees in general, I'm all ears)
posted by jquinby at 10:39 AM on April 5, 2021

You aren’t going to get less fruit if a graft fails, yeah? I suppose you could infect the rootstock tree, if you were sloppy and unlucky.

I’d go for it.
posted by clew at 3:01 PM on April 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'd recommend posting your question to a more specific forum, perhaps this one or similar. Plant nerds tend to really specialize and seek out similarly specialized discussion boards (ask me how I know).
posted by vegartanipla at 9:30 PM on April 5, 2021 [2 favorites]