The following was sent to me from danderson. Though our direct e-mail connection has been helpful ... I’d prefer to keep such discussions within the forum for all to see – and so others can help me out! I’ve responded to this message below and will send a link to ‘D’:

 Viron, several weeks ago I posted a message about grafting some very old apple trees in a historic site on the Tillamook State forest, well the responses I got did not seem to be going the way I had anticipated, I have no time for any political views or opinions about the state forest management thats not my department, when it come to this project I am just looking for some help, I work for the Department of forestry and I am in charge of maintaining some of their facilities, one of which is a historical site which contains these fruit trees, it is a large meadow along the river with no trees to log, and no red tape it is all a done deal, the idea behind this was to make sure that these trees which were planted by one the very first European settlers to inhabit this area, to make sure they lived on regardless of what they are, I had hoped that some local folks with the knowledge might kind of adopt these trees and help me take care of them, they have grown where they are now for many decades without any care at all and I am afraid without some care and propagation they will be gone for good. So I liked your idea of dormant tip growth do not know where to get that, and I liked you idea of bringing the cuttings for grafting to one of the HOS events. Could you elaborate a bit on both of these ideas, thanks
danderson

“D,” that’s a very different situation than what I’d envisioned... and I wish you would have shared it on our forum. We/I frequently get such personal messages… and hesitate responding outside of it. In this case I compiled our correspondence and forwarded it to several higher-ups within the Home Orchard Society as a possible project. It’s been several days and I’ve not heard from any, perhaps they’ll address it at the next board meeting.

I’m envisioning the one-time park, gated to the public for years now, with some level areas where I believe there was once a homestead along the Wilson River off Hwy 6? Many of our oldest fruit trees were purchased from the Luelling Nursery in Milwaukie Oregon, those trees having made the perilous journey across the Oregon trail – he, Henderson Luelling, actually loaded identical wagons with equally distributed trees so in case one was lost – as one was – the other would have what he felt necessary to populate Oregon with fruit trees. As one of the society’s grafters I’ve personally reproduced and distributed a likely ‘clone’ of one of these trees from a farm near Hillsboro.

In your case, I envision old ‘balanced’ trees; trees in which very little new growth is produced as the tree has achieved a stasis or balance between root system and top growth. Those are often very difficult trees to obtain scions from … but not impossible. What you need to collect is last season’s growth, usually found at the tips of branches - and generally the branches highest in the air. It needs to be collected between now and late February, so you’ve plenty of time. Once it’s collected it must be refrigerated and stored until grafted sometime in March … likely at our next Spring Scion Exchange (or whatever we’re now calling it). Hopefully, it will again be located at the Washington County Fairgrounds, as that should be closer to both of us.

One of our main grafters, having outlasted several cohorts by starting much younger, I would insist you bring your scions to ‘me.’ But first you’d have to pick out rootstock; assuming there are no pears on the site (which I’d also encourage you to propagate), I’d recommend the apple rootstock “Malus Antonovka.” That’s a ‘Russian seedling’ rootstock that produces a full-sized or ‘original sized’ tree. In the old days few trees ‘around here’ were grafted to dwarfing rootstock – and you’ll want trees capable of out-growing the local deer, elk and bear. We don’t always have it, as few people desire full sized trees anymore, but if not I’d suggest the ‘next size down,’ whatever that happens to be.

You’d head out the door with 'ten inch trees' … which could be planted directly where you want them but would obviously require some serious protection, watering and weeding for a few years. But in that soil and on ‘that rootstock,’ they’d likely take off. As best I can remember our rootstock was around $4 a piece and our grafting services were near the same… I’d recommend you at least get a discount on the rootstock (unless the state forest service has funds allocated for this venture) and would happily graft them for ‘free’ …though none of us are paid for our efforts …but I’d have to run that by those in charge…

So, to collect the wood, or “scions” you’ll have to reach the tips of the highest branches and snip off the longest pieces of last season’s growth. Last year I grafted some two and three year old buds for a friend (mentioned in this thread); of ten trees, they all grew. But that was extremely iffy and not the way we like to do it. But don’t kill yourself collecting the scions… I suggest cutting off a ‘straight up’ growing limb then taking what you can from its tip growth. – Also – if there has been a wound or an area where several ‘long new shoots’ have emerged from the trunk – those shoots are ideal!

Save (foot long if you can nab them) pencil diameter or slightly larger sections of the newest growth; soak a couple pages of newspaper in clean water and let it ‘drip dry’ before rolling and wrapping those cuttings (scions) inside; use a pencil (ink smears) and separate piece of paper to mark and describe the tree from which they came; tie it with string around the damp bundle; wrap that bundle into an air-tight plastic bag (having removed the bulk of it’s air); place rubber bands around that to seal it and store it inside a refrigerator until the day it’s to be grafted.

As far as caring for the existing trees… that’s a real chore when neglected, and something I’d have to see. You could post photos on the forum site, we’ve been able to give some basic advice to others that way, and at least get a general idea of what condition they’re in. I’d also like to ‘reconstruct’ our conversation on the thread you posted on our Forum. I don’t see anything in your response above that would cause any problems and the reason I ‘do this’ is to spread the knowledge of fruit tree care and propagation to others – now including the Tillamook Forest - in fact, I’ll do that first and send you a link.

And, if you’d respond there (here) – we can share our adventures