How to Graft Ficus

Graft your fig in early spring when deciduous trees are still dormant. Grafting involved melding two trees by attaching a branch cutting of the fig cultivar, termed the scion, onto the root section of a hardy fig, termed the rootstock. The scion controls the shoot growth -- branch, leaf and fruit -- of the melded tree. The rootstock controls the root growth, determining the tree's tolerance to soil and disease, as well as its size and hardiness.

Dig gently around the base of the rootstock tree -- a young fig with a trunk diameter of about 1/2 inch -- to expose several inches of basal trunk. Wipe the blade of a very sharp knife with a rag soaked in denatured alcohol. Use the knife to slice the top off the rootstock tree just below ground level, in a slanting cut 2 inches long.

Cut a scion from the fig cultivar. Select a branch between 1 and 2 years old with a diameter of about 1/2 inch. Take a cutting about 6 inches long that contains at least three lateral buds. Make the same diagonal cut that you used for the rootstock.

Place the blade of the knife on the cut section of rootstock at a point one-third of the way from the peak to the low point of the slant. Press the knife into the wood about 1 inch without breaking the trunk. Direct the cut so that its angle is halfway between the line of the wood grain and the angle of the slant. This cut is part of a tongue-and-groove arrangement that will anchor the scion to the rootstock.

Cut the diagonal basal end of the scion in the same place and in the same manner as you did the rootstock. Press the slanted cuts of the scion and the rootstock together, slipping the scion's cut "tongue" section into the "groove" section in the rootstock. Fit the pieces together snugly.

Cut a piece of grafting tape and wrap it tightly around the graft connection. Spread grafting paint over the grafting tape. These products disintegrate in time and do not require removal.