Spring pruning
After we got about 5 cm of sudden snow after a 10C week, go figure, we're again headed for the 10C tomorrow. So as good as time as any to start in the spring pruning in the orchard.
Luckily I started doing summer pruning as well, 2 summers ago, so there's not much left for spring. Doing the whole lot of 20 trees took about an hour. And that includes all the "help" I got from baby girl!
Byproduct or leftovers? No such thing as waste in nature so all clippings were labeled and will be shared next week at a small community seed swap!
Ooh, scion wood! How long is it good for, and how is it stored?
Easily a few months, in a wet cloth, inside a plastic bag, in a fridge!
Is grafting only a spring thing, or can it be done with summer scion wood too?
If you have a well-stored scions, it can be done basically the whole year. In summer it's best to use a type of bud grafting (chip budding also called).
You can do a late grafting with last years scion and the bud will develop in that same season. You can also wait for August and collect a newly formed this year sleeping bud and graft that and it will develop next spring.
Also walnuts and other nut trees are usually grafted in warm times, window grafting usually (not sure how it's called in English, it's where you cut a rectangular piece of the bark containing a bud).
Good info to know, how long it can be stored. Nice looking clippings. :))