Grafting Workshop

 


Workshop Report by Pauline Sleigh

On Tuesday 15 June, Andrew hosted a session on grafting at his lovely garden in Canadian. Steve Burns held an extremely educational session and I would strongly encourage any who missed out to take the opportunity to attend if this was ever to be held again; I know I will!

(Note: the workshop was filmed and a link to the video is after the photos!)

The session started with Steve outlining a bit about his history and where his interest in grafting came from and his interest in productive gardening, permaculture and unusual edible species. He admitted that he had become a bit over enthusiastic in his grafting in previous years resulting in a grafted tree in pot collection that had become somewhat cumbersome.

He suggested that apples were a great place to start for new grafters due to being readily available and reliably successful.

Steve showed us some grafted examples and discussed the issue of apial dominance which in simple terms means the highest bud on the plant will become dominant. Significantly if this bud is of the root stock the graft is unlikely to thrive.

An explanation of the types of rootstocks and the reasons for selecting different types was given. In simple terms a ‘dwarfing’ rootstock is one that naturally only grows a small root ball therefore a large tree type (eg granny smith) cannot get the water and nutrients needed for vigorous growth and so becomes ‘dwarfed’ – neat huh? Other rootstocks are available for other characteristics eg cold resistance for trees grown where heavy snowfall freezes the ground.

Similarly, the Scion or grafting material may be selected for different properties. Obviously, the type of apple – dessert or eating, cooking, or dual purpose. However, the flowering time, fruiting time and also the genetic nature of the breed (more on that in a tick) and the vigour of the grafted material. This then was related back to previously mentioned apial dominance and the need to select appropriately graft scions with similar vigour when multi grafting or reworking trees.

A very informative explanation of the nature of diploid and triploid genetic nature of the resulting tree (from the graft) shed much light on a potential explanation of why in a home orchard one tree may fruit prolifically while another may never set fruit. Grafting may provide the solution – reworking a triploid tree with diploid grafts of similar vigour could result in more fruit from the diploid which is being ‘fertilised’ by the sterile triploid. See don’t you wish you came!  Additional reworking information in the form of an anecdote about commencing the grafting process of an existing cherry with a chainsaw was also very enlightening.

Steve then discussed and demonstrated whip and tongue grafting. He explained the nature of the Cambian Layer along with the importance of ensuring scions are grafted ‘right way up’, obvious when you know that the transit of water and nutrient can only go up in the cambian layer and that of carbohydrates only goes down. He showed us his recommended way of holding a grafting knife, which side of the blade to apply to the cut and what makes a good ‘whip’ cut. Then the tongue cut and how to join and tape them. A conversation about the use of growth hormones and ‘willow water’ to assist in the graft taking was fascinating.

Andrew then kindly volunteered one of his espaliered apples for an example of cleft grafting with scions of Cox’s Orange Pippin that Steve brought (Andrew, can I volunteer our garden as a demonstration next time?). Some advice about orchard hygiene as it relates to grafting Scion material of Cox’s Orange pippin were provided to all who were interested.

Andrew asked for a couple of paragraphs but I found the session to be so comprehensive I couldn’t limit myself. There was so much more than a segment on Gardening Australia (haha). A few years back I attended a grafting day at Werribee and can tell you I learnt so much more on Tuesday. The opportunity to watch at close quarters and ask any question that we liked was fantastic!

Well I’m off to attempt to graft my Cox’s Orange Pippin and the “Andrew’s Beehive Red” (inside joke) onto my potentially diploid tree. 😊









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