Getting a Graft from a Tree?

Marty Dick
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 169 Posts

November 18, 20070 found this helpful

There is a show on HGTV called Gardening by the Yard. The host is Paul James. I'm sure there will be some info there. Another place to look is Dave's Garden. It is a website I used to visit often.
FYI... I grew the most beautiful weeping willow from a cutting I got from a neighbor. Her tree had been split down the middle by lightening. It was mid summer, possibly the hottest day, and I dug a big hole, filled it with grass cuttings and leaves I peeled from the willow cutting to make a place to catch and hold water and I planted that rascal.

So it's a branch from the tree? In other words, you don't need roots to start another tree?

susan
Silver Feedback Medal for All Time! 472 Feedbacks

November 20, 20070 found this helpful

For some trees/plants, you can take a 'cutting,' a small twig with soft tissue that will root on its own when kept moist and in soil. Willow is an especially good example, as it roots easily. (Small willow cuttings are often put into some water then discarded and the water is used as a rooting hormone for other things.) This is a free way to attain new plants.

A graft is totally different. It is usually a bud from one thing that is implanted on another thing. The bud of a dwarf tree is usually 'grafted' on regular rootstock and allowed to grow into a dwarf tree, or different types of plums can be grafted on a tree and allowed to grow into a tree that has several varities of plums on it. Grafting is more knowledge intensive than taking cuttings.

Make a good size cut in the tree, through the bark to the wood, wrap with damp sphagnum moss and seal good so no air gets into to the wrapped part. After a few weeks to a few months, depending on type of tree, you will get a still sprout with white roots . Carefully cut this off, and seal the parent tree with tree sealer. Plant the baby tree, keep well watered and sheltered for a year or so. Pretty soon you will have a hardy little tree! Rose

I live in zone 5a. I cut out some small clips from my Arborvitae trees, wet the ends, stuck in root starter and put in little pots of potting soil. It takes a few years for thee baby scrub trees to start growing but they sure make a nice roll of hedge trees. Sue

Thank you everyone for your tips and information regarding the graft. I will use them to grow a new peach tree in my yard.