A couple of months ago I learnt how to graft. Grafting is a technique in horticulture used to join the parts of two or more plants so that they grow as one plant.
There are many different types of grafts. At my course I learnt the cleft graft and the whip and tongue graft. We also learnt how to do budding which is usually done in summer and has a higher success rate than most grafts.
Now that we are a few months on, I am seeing lots of new growth on the scion wood which is a great sign that they have been successful.
I'm lucky that my boss is very supportive of my learning so she let me do some grafts at work too. These grafts were slightly different because our rootstock were large trees (invasive cherry trees recently been made illegal to sell). This meant we did a cleft graft with two pieces of scion wood, which doubles the chance of success.
These grafts are also showing some signs of new growth however my boss has warned me that sometimes they survive for a little while but don't properly take.. only time will tell!
Was it the Taiwanese Cherry, Prunus campanulata that you grafted onto?
ReplyDeleteThat's really great that your boss lets you do grafting at work!
I;d love to know how these fair and if they make it! I want to try this on an avocado at home. This technique is called top grafting and is what the orchards often do to change varieties - though usually on a fully mature tree!
ReplyDeleteHow on earth they graft at the speed they do in Wiamea Nurseries is beyond me I've known about grafting for over a year now and I still work at the speed of an arthritic grandpa! Good to see all this info here though it's very helpful for jogging memories and learning techniques!
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