Four Best Method for Grafting Your Fruit Trees

If you want to increase your fruit trees diversity then try grafting, an age old skills to reproduced original cultivar from the seeds. Grafting is a technique that connects a part of plant with another plant, grow together to form a single plant. The top part that produces leaves, branches, fruits and flowers is called as scion. The lower part includes the root system at the bottom of the trunk called as rootstock or simply stock. The scar which remains visible on the tree is known as graft union, simply union or bud union. There are several method of grafting used for different plants in different situation. Here are four best methods for grafting your fruit trees.

The Whip Graft: The whip graft is commonly used for young fruit trees such as apple and pears when the branches are small and the under stock is also the same as scion of the new tree. They are commonly used for grafting root and scions but can be used for joining small branches. They are sometimes called as tongue or bench grafting to unite plants easily. This type of graft is complicated for beginners but is widely used by experienced gardeners. The under stock is cut at an angle and second cut is made with the first in order to create a tongue. Similar process is conducted on the scion and placed on the under stock in a way that the tongues get lock.

The Cleft Graft: The cleft graft is mostly used on older developed fruit trees either on the small tree trunk or on the branches of a large fruit trees to propagate hard-to-root plants such as ornamental and fruit plants. The advantage of this method is that it joins two or four scions to stock, giving better chance of the graft to hold. Cleft grafts are done in late winter season to early spring when the tree is inactive. If the scion is cropped frozen, this can take longer to heal. During the growing season, the scions must sprout from the buds and start to grow. After the seasons, the best bud should be selected and rest needs to be removed.

The Side Graft: The side graft is used on branches which are not too large for the whip graft and too small for cleft graft though they are used on a wide range of branch sizes. In this, the scion is placed on the side of the stock, larger in diameter.  Side grafting produce effective results when done throughout the late winter and the beginning of spring, before the new growth season has begun. This method is used for sapling trees to turn them into different kind of tree to create a weeping form.

Budding: Budding is a grafting form where a single bud is used instead of section of stem. It is normally used method for fruit tree production but can be used on young fruit trees such as plum, cherry, peach, pears, apples and apricots. Budding is done in summer season when the stocks slips quiet easily and have full-grown buds. Budding needs the same safety measures as grafting. But make sure the rootstock and scion are well-suited; scion has mature buds where the cambia of rootstock and scion should match. Be careful to prevent contamination or drying of grafting materials. Generally deciduous and shade fruit trees are perfect for budding.