Whip and Tongue Grafting with Jim Arbury
We looked at different rootstocks and different ways to create them and the type you can get for all sorts of fruit.
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| Pboto 1: Info board for creating rootstocks |
Colt is an old Prunus variety, probably good for large ornamental trees. Aerial roots naturally occur at the base stems of the shrub. These can be cut straight off plant and replanted as rootstock.
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| Photo 2: Colt variety of Prunus with naturally occurring aerial roots on bottom stems. |
Some apple trees have natural burs and aerial roots on these, these can be chopped off the tree and planted to make a new one. This is an old method. Big standard grafted trees can take 3 - 5 years for fruit and 10 - 15 for it to be a proper cropper.
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| Photo 3: Apple tree 'Winter Banana' with naturally occurring burs. |
Grafting knives can be sharpened on a oil stone by putting oil on the stone and running the knife up and down the stone on the side(s) of where the blade is sharp at a slight angle. Sharpness of knife can be tested by seeing if it shaves hair on a patch on the the arm.
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| Photo 4: Knife sharpening |
Graft scions around 5 - 8mm diameter and 23cm long are collected Dec or Jan, same diameter to rootstock if poss. These can be bundled and buried 2/3rd of the way up under a north facing hedge to help keep them dormant. Or keep in a plastic bag in fridge until spring. When it comes to the actual grafting hardest buds are at the base of the stem so should be cut off. You can get away with rootstock and scion not of the same thickness.
For the graft cut on the scion you cut a flat sloping cut roughly 5cm long behind a bud halfway through the stem. Then a upward cut one third of way down of this cut approx. 5mm deep for the 'tongue' bit. Cut this down to size of 3 - 4 buds long.
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| Photo 5: Graft cut on scion. |
Rootstock should be headed off 15 - 30cm above ground with a downward sloping cut opposite to the side that you are going to graft on approx. 3cm of a smooth area without a bud. Then a downward cut one third of the way down for the other corresponding 'tongue'. Ensure no bark touches or interferes with the union, or there could be problems for the two to join.
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| Photo 6: Union of scion and rootstock, the tongues slot into each other. |
They should lock together and the cambium part still exposed on the scion is called a 'church window'.
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| Photo 7: The small curved exposed part of the cambium on the scion is called the 'Church Window' |
Then this is bound together tightly with photo degradable tape and tied off. Then melted wax is used to cost and protect areas where the cambium is still exposed including the top of the scion.
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| Photo 8: The graft bound by tape and exposed cambium parts waxed. |
