Can You Graft Different Types of Fruit Trees Together?

Description

• Grafting is a professional technique of joining two plants, such as fruit trees or flowering trees, together. All fruit trees are grown from grafts instead of seeds, but other types of grafting is employed later as the tree grows. The upper part of the graft is called the scion while the lower portion is the under-stock. Grafting is often used to create disease-resistant trees, to repair damaged trees and to grow more then one variety of a specific family of fruit on one tree.

Fruit Salad

• Part of the enjoyment of grafting comes from seeing fruits of a different variety growing on the same branch. Red, yellow and green apples can all grow together on the same tree, as well as peaches with apricots or different pear varieties. This creates a fruit salad of sorts on the tree, and saves space for the home gardener who wants to grow different varieties of fruit in a small orchard or backyard.

Home Garden Grafting

• Home gardeners can try their hand at grafting. There are a variety of grafting techniques, but the method known as bud grafting is the easiest for the inexperienced grafter -- all you need is a sharp knife and some grafting tape. The technique requires a shallow cut to remove a healthy bud, which is joined to a healthy branch from a tree of the same family. The grafting tape secures the tree until the union becomes strong.

Difficulty

• Not every graft will be successful, so attempting to graft trees yourself can be discouraging at first, but a dedicated home gardener can be successful with a good amount of practice. Often trial and error can teach you which method works best for your trees. A visit to a local orchard may inspire a method you haven't yet tried. Keep trying until you figure out what works best for your garden.

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