I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me out.

I'm looking for scion wood from the following three apple varieties: Anna, Honeycrisp, & Gala. If you have a few pieces of each of these to offer, I only need enough to graft a tree or two for my own orchard. I have some decent apple rootstock left over from last year that will be quite suitable for my needs.

If you're a grafter too & you'd like to do some swapping, I have some scion from three varieties of oriental persimmon:
> Tamopan
> Two varieties from some trees that mario got from Italy. One has fruit that mario refers to as the "Vanilla" persimmon due to its flavor having a hint of vanilla. The other is a large yellow Hachiya type. Don't know much else about them right now. I do know which variety is which and will have them marked accordingly. Hopefully we'll learn more from mario about those two as time goes on.

The latter two scion were taken back in the fall when I visited Mario to pick fig cuttings. The Tamopan was taken last month. Both are wrapped & properly stored in my fridge.

If you're not interested in a swap but still have some of the apple scion, and wouldn't mind making some available, please let me know what you'd like for a few pieces.

Thank you!

Bill,

I should have Anna, and Gala for you. Neither has fruited for me yet, so I can only hope they were sold as true. But you are asking for the wrong apples there are better ones. :)

Bill, I have Honeycrisp. I will send a pm.

Well, I've heard good things about Anna and I know the family likes the other two. I personally like sweet/sweet-tart and very crisp apples. 

So I ask, please do enlighten me :-) .

I"m thinking I've gotten apple scion from you in the past haven't I? If so, then I may already have some of your favorites started. Can't think of any of them but Wickson Crab at the moment. I'd have to go out with a flashlight to confirm some of the others.

I don't remember If I sent apples.  I sent pears both Asian and Euro couple years ago, Last year Pluots, I think a couple peach and several Persimmon. That Tamopan may be from me.

I was half-kidding about the apples I am no apple expert. Those are all okay I guess. Honeycrisp is a good apple, but I think is over-rated, I have shyed away from it as I hear it doesn't develop the taste in the south that it does up around Minnesota where it was developed. Anna is a real low chill apple is the main thing it has going for it as folks that can't grow many apples can grow Anna, but if your family likes it that's most important.
 
Not to say they are any better than the ones you listed as most of mine had disease resistance as a heavy selection criteria. but would likely be able to send Goldrush, Williams Pride, Pristine, Liberty, Arkansas Black maybe stick of Ashmead's Kernel  and couple others.

I think you're right. I believe I recall now who I got some apple scion from a season or two ago - maybe last year. 

Pretty sure I got several varieties of Kaki from you last year. Yep, I just found where I made up an invoice on a trade we did. I sent you a bunch of fig stuff & you sent me scion of Kaki, Pluots, and Peach. Maybe some other stuff but those were what I had recorded. Keeping records really comes in handy doesn't it? Unfortunately I didn't keep track of every variety you sent. Just made note of each species.

It is becoming clear now though that I did succeed with most varieties you sent. I also shared some of that material with a buddy. Hopefully between the two of us, we have some of everything :) . I'll have to do a walk through soon & make note of all the ones that I got from you.

You will be interested to know that I grafted 3 of the Kaki persimmons onto native rootstock down on the creek. All 3 took.
I'd got permission from another bud of mine to graft onto some of the persimmon trees growing in on his property. Those showed exceptional first season growth. I got the Tamopan scion because I had to trim one shoot that shot up as a single 6' whip.

So, what are some of your favorite apples? 

Bill, Anna will be very, very early for you in KY, maybe too early.  It blooms in January here in San Diego and only gets to full size when pollinated (best by Dorset Golden).  I would take up the offer for Arkansas Black if I were you.

Look up Southern apples online.  There are a lot of old heirloom varieties out there that should do great at your location.

how to do root apple scions? or do you graft them on a root stock? 

Bill,

I have Anna, but no clue or experience in taking scions.  How is a scion different than a cutting?  Anyway when should scions be taken?  My tree is in full blossom and setting fruit, and the apples are so good, I'm not willing to sacrifice this years crop to take cuttings.  It is old and big and has no other tree to pollinate it, unless you count rosemary, peaches, pears, plums as pollinators.  There are gazillions of bees buzzing, but we don't, nor do our neighbors have a Golden Dorsett for pollination.  Our tree just bears a lot of fruit on it's own.

It does well here because the climate is appropriate.  Some say it isn't as good as others because they live in cooler climates and it was bred for low chill regions.  It is sweet, crisp with a little tang.  Wonderful Apple!

I can send you some (if I learn when and how to take scions).  I don't need to trade for anything.

Suzi

Suzie, The scion must be taken when the tree is dormant so it is too late for Anna now.

So If I wanted to start growing apples. What would be a good dwarf root stock to purchase so I could get scion and graft? 

Which Rootstock is a hard question. There is lots of info if you google "apple rootstock" here are a couple below. I actually like my trees on m111/emla111 which isn't very dwarfing. When I read the lists all seem to have benefit's I would just keep in mind some  dwarfing require staking or support of some manner. It don't know these links are any better than others. You can even get into Interstems  which try to impart stronger rooting that are well anchored then another short section grafted for dwarfing and then your desired cultivar grafted to that. It might be determined what you can find available.

http://www.thenewfruitgrower.com/new_page_1.htm
http://www.acnursery.com/rootstock.php

Bill, I have Anna and Fuji and a rare huge apple from Cyprus, Anna is blooming like there is no tomorrow.

For those who've offered but your trees are in bloom, it's too late to take scion. You'd be cutting off potential fruit and the cutting would likely just die. But thank you anyway. Late fall/early winter is best time to take scion and store it in your fridge. It can also be taken this time of year depending on where you are.

In my zone, I won't start seeing apple blooms until April (hopefully). Any earlier and they would get hit by late frosts. So, based on what padsfan said in post #9, Anna will most likely be too early for me. My area has a bad habit of warming up too early. Things start to bloom and then we get one of those notorious late frosts. So late setting fruits work better here than early varieties. Our summers are plenty long enough and warm weather usually extends into November. I guess Anna is off the list for that reason alone.

Neil. Yes, it was you that sent me a bunch of nice apple scion last year. Many of those took for me. Aside from Wickson, I ended up with Golden Gem, Virginia Gold, Gold Rush, Ark Black, and Early Fuji. I'm sure these will all turn out to be some great varieties as long as they pull through this winter ok. I was just looking for the others as some that I was sure the fam likes as well as to use up the rootstocks I have. I also have a "water sprout" coming up next to one of my apple trees that's dying. So it would be nice to graft a replacement there. I'm roughly in the same USDA zone as you. How do your Honeycrisp and Gala do for you there?

Frank, I got my rootstock from Raintree. Mainly because they sell small orders. They were reasonable enough and their rootstocks seem to be of pretty good quality too. You just need to read the descriptions to determine which one seems to fit your needs : https://www.raintreenursery.com/Rootstocks/ 

I've been reading about grafting a little bit. Is there a 'grafting bible' or a great website? Our farm came with 7 apple trees. I didn't do anything with them yet. I'm going to do some severe pruning this year along with some pest control and see what I get. I'm really interested in stone fruits, but want to try a little bit of all fruit types.

Thanks,
Jeff

I’ve taken the plunge and ordered some root stock from raintree, BUD9 and EMLA27. Thanks for the advice everyone. It’s something i had looked into but never committed to. 
My parents in NY have a small apple tree orchard on their property I grew up eating I would like to try to graft onto them. 

Bill,

My original Honeycrisp died unexpectedly two years ago without producing fruit for me. It was going into it's fourth leaf and, had it survived, may have produced for me that year, as we had few killing frosts that spring and those of my trees that hadn't been ravaged by rampaging deer (since fenced out) produced decent crops, never a sure thing around here. I grafted Honeycrisp again last spring and while it grew well enough for me to take one or maybe two scions, it won't produce fruit for at least a couple more years. If it tastes as good as it's Keepsake, another U of Minnesota variety that I grow, I'll be pretty happy. 

Gala produces okay for me, but I just don't like the apple that much. It's pretty enough, but doesn't have enough flavor for my tastes. There are too many apple varieties out there I'd like to try and I don't have room for additional trees, so that means grafting onto what I have in the ground. That Gala tree already has two other varieties grafted to it and it's time to get rid of the rest of the Gala branches.

I noticed your list of successful grafts didn't include Esopus Spitzenburg or Rubinette. I can send them to you again if you'd like. They are fantastic apples, as is Karmijn de Sonneville. Though I've tasted only one Karmijn, it was the single most memorable apple I've eaten from my orchard. I'd have more to report on that variety but the tree split in it's third year due to poor training on my part and was savaged (worse than ravaged) the following three years by deer, so it's just now recovering enough to produce fruit again for me -  I've got a list of the apple scions I have available that I can PM to you if you'd like it. Research them at the following websites and let me know:

http://www.orangepippin.com/apples

or Vintage Virginia Apples:
https://www.albemarleciderworks.com/orchard/apple-varieties

@ Jeff. I learned all I needed to know by watching youtube videos and practicing on a few branches over the winter one year. I also looked at a few still images and instructions on Bass's website (treesofjoy) but it was really the videos that helped me the most. I've mentioned this fella on other threads before because I was able to follow his grafting instructions far better than many others I came across. The British accent might be a little distracting for some folks but it's not real thick so not a problem for me anyway. He's got a few hundred vids so you'll have to scan through a bit to find the ones specifically on grafting. You can take a look if you want:   

Anyone know how to undo that annoying "hyperlink" under the text in my post above? 

look up the grafting videos from Dave Wilson Nursery on youtube.com  they are definitely the best, most professional grafting videos.

Bill, I too have Rubinette. It is fast to come into bearing and beyond words wonderful. I think everyone should have Rubinette! I can send it with the other if you want.

Thanks. Both videos were good. I'll start researching.