Gardeners know that planting the seeds of a peach or apple will not culminate in a tree that has the same delicious fruit. Instead, the seeds produce wild progeny, usually with only marginally edible fruit. To get the fruit you crave, grafting is the answer (
figure A).
Grafting is an ancient skill with all kinds of modern applications. Almost any fruit tree you buy in the nursery has been grafted--or combined--with a disease-resistant rootstock to produce a hardier tree. Home gardeners can graft too. And if you can't decide which apple or peach to graft, you can graft several different varieties onto the same tree (figure B).
Bud grafting is done during the growing season. A bud is taken from the tree you want to propagate and inserted into a branch on the tree that serves as rootstock (for complete instructions, see video, right).
Whip grafting is done during the dormant season and requires making identical cuts on a whip and the graft-recipient tree (see video, right).
After you've made your graft--whether it's a whip or a bud graft--make sure you mark it in some way so you can see where the graft was made and you don't accidentally prune off the graft. White paint works just fine for marking.
Guests Chuck Ingels
Extension Agent
UC Cooperative Extension
4145 Branch Center Rd.
Sacramento, CA 95827-3898
Phone: 916-875-6913
E-mail:
caingels@ucdavis.edu
Website:
cesacramento.ucdavis.edu
Also in this Episode
)
)
WINDOWS MEDIA VIDEO
