How to Graft Plants

By Staff

Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 11:01

When you want to combine two plants into one plant, grafting is the way to go. Grafting is one of the most interesting forms of plant propagation. You can use the best part of two plants to create an either stronger or differently shaped variety. This will work with fruit plants, flowering plants or really any type of plant. Grafting is a method of plant propagation widely used in horticulture, where the tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with those of another.

Grafting is the art of attaching a piece of one plant to another in such a way that the two pieces bond and become one plant.

When to Graft

Grafting, mostly, is done during winter and early spring while both scion and rootstock are still dormant. Containerized plants may be moved indoors during the actual grafting process; after grafting, these plants are placed in protected areas or in unheated overwintering houses. Field-grown stock, of course, must be grafted in place. Some deciduous trees are commonly grafted as bare rootstock during the winter and stored until spring planting.

Grafting Process

Choose any plant as a stock plant (the bottom portion of the graft) and slice off the top with a sharp knife. Be sure the stock plants are of good quality, healthy, and true to type.

Using a straight-edged knife, cut through the bark to the wood. Make the cut parallel to the direction of the limb being grafted.

Slice off a section of the variety to be grafted on top of the stock plant.

Join the two pieces together by lining up the two cylindrical parts, the scion and the root stock.

Match the cambium layers (the vascular system of the plant which is located just under the skin or bark) on at least one side of the graft.

Hold the graft in place with one hand and place rubber bands around the grafted scion, and across the bottom of the container to support the graft while the cut edges heal.

After the rubber band is in place the entire graft union should be coated with melted grafting wax to keep the union air tight. If air gets into the graft union the cambium layers will dry out and not bond. Make sure the grafting wax is not too hot. Just warm enough for it to melt is as hot as you should let it get. If the wax is too hot, tissue damage can occur.

The rubber band should be left on for a period of about 8 weeks.

Why Grafting

Dwarfing: To induce dwarfing or cold tolerance or other characteristics to the scion.

Ease of propagation: Because the scion is difficult to propagate vegetatively by other means, such as by cuttings. In this case, cuttings of an easily rooted plant are used to provide a rootstock. In some cases, the scion may be easily propagated, but grafting may still be used because it is commercially the most cost-effective way of raising a particular type of plant.

Hybrid breeding: To speed maturity of hybrids in fruit tree breeding programs. Hybrid seedlings may take ten or more years to flower and fruit on their own roots. Grafting can reduce the time to flowering and shorten the breeding program.

Hardiness: Because the scion has weak roots or the roots of the stock plants have roots tolerant of difficult conditions.