Everything you need to know about fruit grafting

grafting on fruits

Both in gardening, as in agriculture and others, grafts are very useful. Is about join or insert a part of a plant in another so that it continues to grow. In this way they are united and the two develop on the same floor.

In this case, I am going to talk to you about fruit grafts, both of the types that exist and what they are for. Do you want to know more about fruit grafting?

What are fruit grafts for?

fruit grafts allow the growth of plants that do not have viable seeds

As I mentioned before, grafts allow us to unite plants into one. Fruit grafts are made up of two parts that are different. The first part is the root and is called the rootstock. The other part is variety. This part is about the area which provides the fruit. Those two parts will be joined by what is the graft itself.

The practice of grafting plants onto others has been done since ancient times, so this is nothing new. It is true that with technological development and botanical research and in this field, grafting techniques have greatly improved their effectiveness. Thanks to the fact that the tradition of grafting has been passed from generation to generation, today we can preserve fruit varieties of great interest.

What is the grafting technique used for? It is important to know that on many occasions, the mere propagation of the seeds does not produce the variety we want. That is why grafting offers many other benefits. We use grafts to:

  • Propagate a variety or species that otherwise could not get or at least it would be very difficult to achieve.
  • Benefit from the characteristics of certain patterns that are capable of vegetating on certain surfaces where the crop has no opportunity to subsist on its own.
  • Grafts allow you to change a variety of fruit for another that is more commercial.
  • It allows us to grow varieties of fruit trees that they are more sensitive to root or neck diseases. To do this, they use more resistant patterns.

The objective of the fruit graft

graft trees exist

The main objective pursued by fruit grafting is to allow the multiplication of a variety or a mutation of the bud or seed. In this way, when we perform the graft, we can maintain the characteristics due to the fact that in the grafts there is no disintegration of the same.

We also use grafting to reproduce and propagate some species that do not have the ability to produce seeds that are viable under certain environmental conditions. In addition, they are used in species that produce very few seeds or in species that do not have a partial or total tolerance to propagation by cuttings.

Graft conditions

grafts in critics

The grafts have a series of conditions that must be met in order for them to function properly and to offer us the results we expect. We have to take into account that both the variety and the root of the graft they have to be compatible. Obviously, we cannot unite two plants that are totally different. Both must come from the same plant material and must be healthy. If you present virus or rest of some payment, the graft will not be carried out correctly.

The graft cannot be carried out when we want, but we must respect the appropriate environmental conditions so that the variety and the pattern can develop correctly without the environment preventing it. Just when making the graft we must protect the grafted part to prevent it from drying out. For this we can use a plastic tape or something protective. We need to keep in mind that newly grafted are weaker.

Types of fruit grafts

steps to graft

There are different types of fruit grafts. The problem is that many of them do not offer us benefits. In general, the most efficient and famous are these two:

  • The spike or piece of one-year-old branch with 2 or 3 buds
  • The yolk with or without wood attached, depending on the type of graft

These are the most practical grafts and the most recommended to do. In addition, if we take into account the season in which we do the grafting, we can classify them into spring grafts and late summer grafts.

Everything you need to know about fruit grafting

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