Home › Outdoor Problems of the Householder › Outdoor Problems of the Householder: Grafting

Outdoor Problems of the Householder: Grafting

Grafting. - The following is, in substance, the method of grafting recommended by the Department of Agriculture:

A scion is a portion cut from a plant to be inserted upon another (or the same) plant, with the intention that it shall grow. The wood for scions should be taken while in a dormant or resting condition. The time usually considered best is after the leaves have fallen, but before severe freezing begins. Tie the scions in bunches and bury in moist sand where they will not freeze and yet will be kept cold enough to prevent growth. Good results in cleft grafthome grounds by a trench made by ing often follow cutting scions in the turning a few furrows with the plow along the contour lines of the slope.

In the Northwest, trees planted as windbreaks a few rods from the northwest side of the home grounds will cause drifts of snow to form just under the edge of the windbreak. They thus protect the orchard and ornamental trees and shrubbery from breakage and conserve a supply of moisture along the edge of the grounds.

Deep cultivation with the plow or spade in orchards or beneath shade trees is not desirable. It injures the root system. If the seed bed has been properly prepared, the only cultivation necessary is to stir the ground to a depth of 2 or 3 inches with a cultivator or hoe to keep down 1 2 3 (1) Grafting tool; (2) cleft grafting: a, scion; b, scions inserted in cleft; rafting: (3) cross section of stock and scion, (L. C. Corbett.) spring just before or at the time of grafting. But spring cutting of scions for whip grafting is not desirable. Not enough time is given for a proper union to take place.

The stock is the plant or part of a plant upon which or into which the a OUTDOOR PROBLEMS OF THE HOUSEHOLDER 261 bud or scion is inserted. For best results in grafting it is essential that the stock be in such condition that active growth can be quickly brought about.

Grafting. The cleft style of graft is particularly adapted to large trees when for any reason it becomes necessary to change the variety.

Branches too large to be worked by other methods can be cleft grafted.

To Make a Cleft Graft. - Select a branch 1 or 1½ inches in diameter and sever it with a saw. Take care not to loosen the bark from any the outer growing parts of both scion and stock. Were the scion thicker on the inner side, the conditions would be reversed and its death would follow.

The importance of having an intimate connection between the growing tissues of both scion and stock can not be too strongly emphasized.

Upon this alone the success of grafting depends. To make this contact of the growing portions doubly certain, the scion is often set at a slight angle with the stock into which it is inserted. This causes the growing portions of the two to cross.

After the scions have been set, the operation of cleft grafting is completed by covering all cut surfaces with a layer of grafting wax.