A warning to anyone planting newly grafted fruit trees. Beware graft nibblers !
To make a short story long: I recently came away from a Nat Trust apple grafting day at Cotehele House, Cornwall with 4 old Cornish varieties grafted onto M9. They weren't the varieties I'd hoped they would offer, but I was happy enough and looking forward to a successful take. But alas !!
The grafts were held together with rubber bands and then waxed (I would have preferred grafting tape, but heh!) and some creature has taken a liking to the wax & bands - wax gone/bands shredded/unchewed scions on the ground (so the culprit was not after the bark). This is inside rabbit/deer fence so will be voles, mice or birds. I'm inclined towards the bird option, but who knows ?
I have tree guards that I could have (wished had) installed, but it just did not occur to me that something would "eat" the bindings/protection.
And then, perturbed by the finding, I picked up the scions without noting which was which ("stupid boy"). A snip at their base later suggests they might still be viable, but I think I will now try them out as hard-wood cuttings for rooting (they are soaking in willow water for planting tomorrow).
Luckily I do have some scion offcuts stored in fridge (with variety tags !!) - hopefully they will be viable. Will try some new grafts tomorrow.
Very disappointing though to lose grafts with very fresh scions. Beware the nibblers !