Trying to Revive the Orchard

I mentioned this past winter that on a very cold day, B went out and harvested samples (scions) from the few very old apple trees that remain in the orchard.  Our goal was to propagate it using some of the Gifford Family's original trees before they were gone, staying true to this homestead that we are caretakers of.

The spring was late, and we have been scrambling to keep up, so this weekend we made sure to set aside the time to graft the trees onto the rootstock that we acquired from a orchardist up in Northern Wisconsin.  

It is really an interesting process.  You cut both the root stock and the scion at an angle, and then cut a slice in each angled piece.  Once done you thread them together like a puzzle.  Then you take a band and tightly cover the splice, followed by some parafilm tape that you wrap over the band and all the way to the top of the new tree top.  Finally, B planted them in some peat moss in a bucket, to soon be transplanted into their own buckets and finally into the row that we prepared at the beginning of the spring.  Fingers crossed, a revived apple orchard to come!