Grafted bloodgood

[Deniss]

[image] https://pasteboard.co/hVAVPh18UVrd.jpg[/image]

Hi I grafted this bloodgood in February 21. Should I reduce or totally cut back the existing seeded maple now or keep all until next winter ? Thanks

[shibui]

Well done on getting a JM graft to take.
I like to leave the stock intact until I am confident there is a good union between it and the new scion. Yours has had half a summer, autumn, winter and now some spring growth and is still growing so it should be pretty well healed.
When I'm confident the graft is good I reduce the stock in stages to make sure the roots keep supplying the trunk and give the tree time to change sap flow to the scion. Just going on the timing you could probably reduce it now.

I would probably chop the top out of that scion leaving just the first 2 branches. The one on the right is strong enough to keep sap flowing but the reduction should get growth started in the bloodgood scion.
I would like to see reasonably good growth in the scion before removing the rest of the stock. Timing will depend on how the tree responds but you could probably remove the rest later in summer.

[Deniss]

Thanks, Neil. Apart from my wife, no one is more surprised than me the graft took. She had a lot of ammunition to doubt my abilities, with a maple cutting record of 2/200 odd and 0/7 air layers on a grafted weeping peach.

[shibui]

To be fair, it sounds like you have picked some really difficult ones to learn on. I don't even bother to try JM cuttings any more and peaches are not really easy and weeping varieties are often even more difficult than the upright forms.