Grafting macadamias

a says...
That’s very interesting Jason I have been looking at the old surviving macadamias trees in Eden and Integrafolia appears to be doing better than tetraphyla, we have quite heavy clay in areas. I was putting it down to salt wind tolerance, as we live near the ocean.

I just visited Lexi a ninty one-year-old lady today who has a tetaphyla at least 40 years old and an integrifolia 30 plus (this tree limited spines on the leaves so may be a hybrid). They are planter next to each other and the younger integafolia is a bigger tree and appeared to be fruiting much better. The leaves on the tetraphyla were browned around the edges, which I thought could be salt wind, whereas the intergafolia had healthy leaves. To be fair the tetraphyla is on he ocean side so would be getting more salt wind. But this appears to be a consistent theme.

There is another old integrafolia tree a few streets up from us; this integrafoilia is a monster 40 foot high and very healthy looking. We have a twenty plus year old tetraphyla that is healthy but the top always gets wind damage and it never gets over 8 feet tall.

The other thing of interest, is their pollination needs Lexi tells me that the first tree they bought was a tetraphyla and they waited ten years for it to fruit and it only ever gave a handful of nuts. At this stage they bought it a mate and when the second one started flowering they got thousands of nuts on the tetraphyla. The loan trees around town, ours and the huge one up the hill both only give a handful of nuts, even though they are mature trees.

This site mentions some varieties are almost self sterile http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/macadamia.html and it also mentions macadamia grafting methods. On that note it could be worth researching some of the hybrids available as they may have both the characteristics you are after. I just bought an A268 hybrid from Daleys as a pollinator. From what I can gather the root system is good for a range of soil types as well as colder climates. I am finding it hard to get info though and would be interested what others have found. on the best root system for clay soil.. salt wind resistance I feel is more of an issue here though. Good luck grafting them it sounds tricky.

allybanana says...
I would say you are on a winner with your integrafolia you will soon know if they give good nuts in your area, if they do you won't have to butcher them with grafts. I am starting to lean more towards them as a species for our area. What do you know about resistance to phytophera could integrafolia be better as if its better in clay soils.

It is interesting that you use seedlings, all the old trees around here are seedlings, do you do it that way to get a better tap root? The A268 I have I think is a layered cutting but hopefully is will get its roots down.

I have been contemplating air layering some branches from Lexi’s healthy bearing old macadamia tree, I was thinking if I do a double air layer with the soil bags about a foot apart that way I could get deep and shallow roots when I plant. If I remove all but the biggest root on the bottom one I might get an approximation of a taproot.

I had better get on the case as Lexi is probably not going to be able to stay at home much longer and after that the tree will probably be bulldozered the same way as the other old fruiting trees around the area, when the old gardeners or their wives that out live them die(This is not a sexist comment only stating that in the instance above the husband was the keen gardener who planted the trees). The other old maca is at Mrs Delomere’s and she is selling up her half acre of trees and going to somwere easier to manage, there is also a manderine there that is nearly a foot across at the base and gives boxes of great fruit each year and an edible fig that you could build a township of cubby houses in. It gets me wild that all these big trees and local varieties are being lost.

I guess i should get a bit of courage and plant seeds from Lexi,s trees which i know bear well. As they are the only two maca trees in the vicinity and are one of each species and the tetraphyla at least is nearly self sterile, so offspring could well be hybrids. I could plant a heap of seeds in relatively wind exposed clay soil and thin to the healthiest ones, graft if they don’t bear well, that way I am contributing to the development of good plants for this area. Rather than just playing it safe with the clones, thanks Jason, for germinating the idea let me know if you want some seeds?

allybanana says...
As no one else has jumped forward with maca grafting advice Jason it looks like your the man. Keep us posted on results so I can learn from your mistakes ---- and of course your triumph.

The future of ones food forest can be a concern, I am living in the place my grandma lived when I was a kid and a lot of the older trees I helped plant with her or my dad as they were both right into there fruit trees. I moved back to my home town a few years ago to live with my gran, when she got on a bit and had a few years in the garden with her and planted a few trees before she died a year and a half ago.

Unfortunately my gran died a year and a half ago and the property got left to my dad but he also died recently four siblings and myself look to inherit the place. So far non of them are keen to sell it so I am hoping for the best and weather or not I am here in the long run I don’t know, I am just continuing with something beautiful, wild and useful while i am here. And promoting and spreading fruit varieties that I have trialed in the area. Who knows what the future may bring for this garden.

arrie says...
I find it difficult to graft 3mm seedlings. I want to use electric isolation tape instead of grafting tape? Why not?

Manfred says...
Any tape is good. Grafting tape stretches and is easy to snap off. Insulation tape will be good as long as its stickiness lasts, because it won't mould around the stem as well as the thinner vinyl grafting tape. Also, you will need to remove it when the graft takes or it will restrict growth of the stem.

Teflon tape would be too fiddly to use. It doesn't come off the roll as cleanly as vinyl and snaps into threads. It is too durable and would be hard to cut off when the graft takes.

Back in the old days raffia was the chosen material, or for those grafts which stay together like whip and tongue, cleft, saddle, bark... just grafting wax, no tape at all.

Manfred says...
Hi Markmelb- I've got a Forestry Tools catalogue unopened which I must look at to see what the two roll feeder looks like. The stickiness of insulation tape is a two edged thing- It would make for a quick join, but it is all that would hold the tape on and when it has been in the sun for a while it would lose its stickiness and fall off. It would be unpleasant to work with. I wouldn't like to use it.

I can understand why someone who might only want to do one or two grafts might be deterred from budding/grafting tape if they see it at up to about $7 a roll in a place that only sells a little of it. But a roll goes a long way. Negotiate them down to $4.

What I mainly neglected to mention earlier was that macadamias can be propagated by cuttings. Hartman and Kester suggests leafy semi-hardwood tip cuttings of mature current season's growth 6 to 10cm treated with 8000 to 10000 ppm IBA. Mist and bottom heat beneficial. I have had success just sticking cuttings into 50:50 perlite and vermiculite and leaving them on the shelf (in the wet tropics).

For grafts, H&K suggest a sidegraft, checking rootstock growth with water or nitrogen deprivation before grafting, and ringing the scion branches several weeks before taking them. M.tetraphylla rootstock preferred.