IMPORTANT: Please note that I live in Sweden. This grafting was done with techniques used on the Swedish market with Swedish/nordic apple varieties.
Last year I took a year long gardening course, and one of the last things we got to do before we all graduated in February was to graft apple trees for the school grounds. It was optional to do one for ourselves to bring home, and I of course did this as I thought it was an amazing way to remember my experiences and what I’ve learnt throughout my time there.
Now, this is a red apple variety called Gravensteiner that’s been grafted on a root stock of the variety A2 or A26 (I’m honestly not quite sure which one I grabbed). The root stocks are all developed by a well known university here in the southern of Sweden and I believe they’re all derived from various crab apples.
I grafted this tree on 18/2-26 by making two horizontal cuts, putting them together (making sure the cambiums make contact), wrapping the grafting site with a rubber band and putting bees wax over the entire rubber band/grafting size as to not let it dry out. I also cut the tip of the graft, and put bees wax over that cut as well. According to my teachers this is one of the standards for grafting on the Swedish market.
It was then kept in my fridge from the day of the grafting, up until 23/3-26 where I potted it into a 5L pot with a mixture of garden soil and sand - as per request by my teachers.
That’s where she’s been ever since, in indirect light in my greenhouse.
As you can see, the root stock has began pushing out shoots, but nothing has so far happened to the graft, it even looks as though it’s drying out, which I know most likely eventually means death. However there is still some green, and I know that green = hope!
I’m looking for advice on what to do next. Is it a waiting game, or is this already proof that unfortunately the graft was unsuccessful? If there are other subreddits this might be better suited for, please let me know.
Thank you!