Mass grafting some apples

I thought it would be fun to try some grafting, so attempted it on some feral plums this winter. I then found a website, yorkshireapples.co.uk, that sells scions of uncommon apple varieties and rootstocks to go with it that you have to graft together yourself. You have to buy 10 rootstocks at a time, but you can (theoretically) make 10 unique apple trees for £90 which seems like a great deal.
I bought the following scions:

Coxs Orange Pippin
Pitmaston Pineapple
Bess Pool
Beauty of Bath
Spartan
Sops in Wine
Michaelmas Red
Pendragon

with Geneva 210 rootstocks.

Anyone tried any of these apples, or have any grafting tips? Ive had Spartan before which was a great crispy apple.

Dont ask where ill find space for them, I know my village too well

 

Pitmaston Pineapple I have. Bought it about 12 years ago on a dwarf rootstock. It is a slight, slender, slow growing, slightly drooping tree with biennial bearing and the tiniest, oval, yellow fruits, which I have never managed to taste because the birds always get to them first.

Cox’s Orange Pippin was a beautiful, delicious, difficult-to-grow-well apple back in the 1960s. It was a triploid. But they “improved” it and it’s now not a patch on what it was.

Beauty of Bath is another apple from my youth. It used to be a much anticipated feature of the local greengrocers’ shops in the early autumn. I haven’t seen it for sale in donkey’s years, but I remember it as being tasty.

Sops in wine I don’t have, but I do have a similar apple called Dirleton Red. A very unusual tree suffused with redness, the fruits are red in every part, flesh, pips the lot. And the wood is red when you cut into it. The flowers are a deep, deep pink. Very pretty, but not the tastiest apple.

 

It's worth using a really sharp grafting knife.
You might consider multiple grafts on each rootstock, especially if space is limited...

 

Pitmaston Pineapple is an excellent small apple with a different flavour.
I'm also fond of Laxtons Superb has a tendency to biennial bearing and large crisp sweet apples.
Discovery was a good early variety, for eating as they ripened, go floury if kept.
Spartan also did well for me.

 

I've got a frankenstein tree with about 25 different cultivars of apples on it. From your list I've cox, spartan and beauty of Bath, which are all quite nice.

Grafting is something where practice helps and my advice, coupled with Stephens sharp knife, would be to practice on waste material until you are confident you can get the cut in a clean motion. Dogwood is good for a learning substitute. I would also protect your fingers with tape or a plaster because it's easy to cut yourself.

 

Thanks for the great information everyone! Glad the ones you recognized have some approval at least.

Did you use whip and tounge or some other method?
my plan is to do both a whip and tounge graft and a bud graft from each scion to increase the chance theyll take.

I suspected modern apples are probably tastier and more reliable but the descriptions I saw where fairly boring, I think it would be more fun to get apples we cant buy in the shops. The "redlove" series of apples seems very interesting, improved red fleshed apples with "berry" flavours, with good reviews but I couldnt find any scions

I cut my hand badly not so long ago doing silly things with my pocketknife (healed already thankfully! unnapreciated perks of being in your 20s...) and got some cut resistant gloves for doing the grafts to avoid this. Watching videos on grafting on youtube, some of the professionals seem to greatly "trust their skills"

 

I used whip and tongue yes. It's an easy graft when you feel less confident in your cut as it doesn't need to be perfect to work.

I also love the variations in apples you can get from grafting. Mine have mostly been from scion collected locally from other allotment owners, who's apples have grown well in our area.
I was given a couple of newer/more modern type apples that are apparently popular in the United States but the friend who gifted them suggested I just used the root stock as they weren't particularly good apples. I haven't had fruit yet but I'm curious to taste them before I do anything.

 

Question.
Would apple prunings root ?

 

I would have thought so, just a bit of a question how they would do on their own roots probably large and probably a fair while to fruit.

 

we had some feral apples here that had grown to about 10m, fruit far too high to pick. maybe 40 years old at most, they have died from silver leaf disease and cut down this year. there are many feral apples along roads in basingstoke from thrown apple cores, they seem to fruit well and most are sub 4 meters. i wouldnt try them due to pollution though. still, they are fruiting by the time they are 3 meters tall, maybe 10-15 years old from seed?

 

Indeed, also along the link road before Jnction 4a M3 from Farnborough . These are regularly harvested by members of the Nepalese community as observed on several occasions. However I was fascinated to note that a solitary tree was left unmolested although well laden with apples.It warranted further investigation; a suitable apple was picked -and found once teeth inserted , to clearly be a cider variety for it was the dryest sourest fruit of all time . Exact location revealed by request if you wish.......

 

ive noticed too, besides us, only immigrants pick feral foods... will need to keep our spots secret! ah plenty of most things to go around, for now!

 

You're not alone @Adam I ! Where I volunteer are lots of feral trees, so we scrump them regularly! A few are so good that I've tried to take some cuttings - I haven't tried grafting.

 

The reason I never got a lookin during the massive walnut harvest last year was the Nepalese, they go around in gangs almost on a commercial scale.

 

You maybe need to up your game. Camp out under the tree and clean up at first light....
TIC