I was the youngest attendee there, surrounded by DIY type folk (and some of their elderly parents) who were interested in learning how to save money and become more self-sufficient, as well as propagating the old, unidentified fruit trees they treat like family members on their property.
Grafting, in essence, is the union of a plant that we want the fruiting charactertistics of (the scion) with the rootstock of another plant that has disease resistance or hardiness.
The union heals and grows together due to the nature of totipotency, where every cell in the plant organism has the blueprints to clone itself into an entirely new individual, and differentiate cell tissues into their particular roles. The origin of this fusion is made possible by lining up the cambiums of the cuttings, which is the region that new growth takes place in the stem.
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Example of whip-and-tongue grafting. Courtesy www.fruitforum.wordpress.com. |
The ancient Chinese and Roman cultures discovered this "magic" nearly 4,000 years ago, using string, wax, or manure to bind the graft together. Theorphrastus of Eeresos refered to this and other popular management methods that were used to "punish the trees" and make them bear earlier.
Nowadays, people use rubber grafting bands and tar tree wound dressing to get the job done. The method I was introduced to here is known as whip and tongue grafting, so I won't get into the other types as I have only read about them.
Grafting knife and tree wound tar. |
- Selecting similarly sized rootstock and scions
- Clean, flat cuts that match up nearly perfectly
- Make 45 degree angled cuts about 1.5" long, for good contact
- Bind the scion onto the rootstock in the direction it originally grew on the tree!
- Let all of the little wood pieces fall on the ground so they don't get mixed up on the table
- Binding tightly, and generously dab with tar
- LABEL as soon as you're done!
I worked with a specialized grafting knife that had a single bevel, and had to get over cutting towards myself as we were all told NOT to do as kids. It's really the best way, I've found, to control the angle of the cuts. I didn't sustain my first injury until after I'd performed about 15 grafts and happened to be teaching my plant science class the how-to, and cut a decent flap of skin on my left index finger. It's healed up nicely now.
All grafts should be stored in a consistently cool, dry area for about a week to allow the union to heal, and then can be transferred to a nursery area in the garden where they can be watered and trained for the first two years of its life. After that, they can be transplanted to their final destination!
Okay... I had to put up these pictures of previous on-tree grafting that Michael Phillips did! Cool stuff! |
1) Old Stone House Museum - Adult Education Classes
2) Holistic orcharding. Dir. Michael Phillips. Perf. Michael Phillips. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. DVD.
3) The Pear in History, Literature, Popular Culture, and Art by Jules Janick
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