Grafting And Budding

Notes for 01 March Propagation Class:

Please note there is a change of plan for tomorrow's lecture. We will not be able to do grafting, but we will start, instead, with t-budding. Here are a few links that discuss t-budding. Please bring your knives and pruners to class – they will be needed.

Budding

Budding is grafting when only a single bud is used. We will only do 't-budding,' sometimes called 'shield budding.' It is an easy method of grafting with a very high success rate. Once shield budding is mastered, one can work on other forms of budding that are more specialized with confidence.

The name 't-budding' is reference to the shape of the cut in the rootstock, while the name 'shield budding' refers to the shape of the bud placed in that 't.' These cuts are very shallow – it is desirable to avoid getting below that very thin layer of cambium directly under the rind of the plants involved.

We will practice working with our knives as we learn to master shield budding.

Links to some additional t-budding data, these have illustrations I am unable to make:

http://www.n8ture.com/hort.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/propagation/budding/budding.html
Note: they've left a stub of a leaf petiole on the bud – this is useful to help manipulate the bud (use it like a little handle). This is on an apple, I think.

Here is a video on t-budding and chip budding from the Midwest Fruit Explorers, I don't necessarily agree with all he has to say, but it is still lovely to get to watch him do what he does.



Grafting

This links you to grafting films on youtube. I don't agree with all his ideas either, but it's still a good video.


This is a saddle graft which we will hopefully be doing March 8th.

david