cherimoya topworking

[buddy roo]

Hi all , I have 4= 25 year old multi trunked 3 or 4 trunks each cherimoya trees that I totally want to cut down and change over to 3 or 4varieties each. ( sorry I do not know how to do photos ) my question is would I be better off cutting them down now hoping for some new shoots to sprout over winter  then graft in spring??  or wait till early spring dormancy to cut down then wait for new growth and graft in summer??   BTW I do know how to graft I am just wondering when those of you that have done it before think/know when I will get the fastest most robust growth     

[spaugh]

When I stumped some 5 year old trees they took a while to come back enough to graft onto. Simon did a bunch of bark grafts but none of them worked out.  And it has taken over a year to get back in shape to graft new shoots.  I think you will be lucky to get it grafted up by June if you stump it now.  It may happen, but it could need 2022 to regrow and get back where you want to graft.  Mine threw a million new suckers out and needed a lot of attention to get thinned and retrained again too.  We did that in spring 2020 and am just now going to reattempt to top work spring 2022.  For a while I thought the trees were dead, now they are going strong again. 

[CTMIAMI]

Brad, I guess you are planning to graft on the new shoots either Cleft or veneer?

[buddy roo]

Hi Brad, do you recall when you stumped them??

[sc4001992]

I would wait until Jan-Feb to cut the trunk off, you will not get much new growth if you do it now.

I cut my back my large cherimoya tree (30 yr old) every spring and it grows back with plenty of new shoots that get to about 10-15ft every year.

[spaugh]

I cut the trees in spring of 2020.  Maybe April or May.  They took quite a while to start regrowing.  The plan was to bark graft but those failed and now I will cleft graft the new shoots 2 years later.  I could have maybe done them 1 year later but wasnt really paying attention to them and probably missed that boat.

My experience is that the smaller baby trees 1-3 years old bounced back and started regrowing faster than the older trees.  Its pretty easy to top work 1-2 year old trees.  Easier than older trees.  Same for avocado, mango, cherimoyas.  Stone fruit seems super easy to top work older trees but these other sub tropicals seems harder to top work older trees. 

[Seanny]

1 graft in June
8 grafts on July 2nd
Most grafts growing well
A couple of grafts barely growing
1 graft failed

A couple of years back I cut back a big cherimoya tree on someone’s yard.
I kept a nurse branch to keep the tree growing.
A month later I returned to check the cuts.
An inch of cambium from the cut end was dead.
I cancelled bark grafting.
Owner sold property so I didn’t return to graft.

Last year I cut back neighbor’s 2 big cherimoya trees around February.
I kept a nurse branch to keep the roots going.
I kept a foot of each big branches.
So tree grew many new shoots.
By June 12th I grafted the thickest shoot.
On July 2nd I grafted some more.
I’m expecting some fruits next year.

One tree I didn’t graft.
Didn’t have scions for it.
The shoots are thick now.
Good to graft next March.

[sc4001992]

Yes, I agree with Seanny when cutting back a large tree, always leave a few nurse branches below the major cut to keep the roots growing. If you just cut off the trunk with no shoots or branch below the cut then it will take a long time for new buds to grow from an old trunk. I do this for all my large avocado, loquats, and mulberry trees and they recover in 6 months and grow large shoots in one year. I just don't have my cherimoya grafting timing down yet so I continue to graft the new branches each year. Avocado tree is looking good with all my favorite varieties on it. Same with my large loquat trees, lots of different varieties on one tree since I don't have much space in my yard. I cut down the trunk (to 4-5 ft tall) on some of my older citrus trees (30+yrs old) and multigrafted my rare & favorites.