Grafting & Budding

What is Grafting?

• Grafting is the process of attaching a branch of one variety of a species to the roots of another variety of the same species. The top branch is called a scion and the roots are called the rootstock. The two parts are married together so that the light-colored, inner layer of bark, called the “cambria,” of both pieces, is touching. The cambria is where the two varieties grow together to form a new plant. When the graft “takes,” the top growth of the rootstock is removed and the plant then produces top growth from the scion.

When Should Grafting be Used

• Most often used to propagate species of plants that are difficult to root from cuttings, grafting is used in several horticultural situations. Branches of new varieties of fruit can be grafted onto established fruit trees if the existing varieties of top growth are no longer popular in the marketplace. The scions are grafted onto the trunk or main branches and reach full production in a few years. When space is at a premium, branches of a compatible pollinating variety of fruit can be grafted onto an existing fruit tree. This will help produce a larger crop of fruit, giving you the benefits of a pollinating variety without using the space that a separate tree requires.

What is Budding?

• Budding is similar to grafting, except that a single bud is inserted into the bark of the rootstock, rather than an entire branch, as it is with grafting. Budding usually results in a stronger graft union between the scion (the bud) and the rootstock than is achieved with grafting. Another benefit of budding is the requirement for a smaller amount of scion plant material. The same amount of plant material required for grafting just one scion branch can yield a dozen or more buds for budding onto separate rootstock, resulting in many more newly propagated plants from the same amount of raw material.

When Should Budding be Used?

• When quantities of the desired plant variety are limited, use budding to propagate this plant. The number of buds harvestable from a single branch will create many more plants than grafting branches of this variety onto suitable rootstock. Another application suitable for budding is creating horticultural “standards.” Standards are primarily flowering shrubs or perennials that are grown to a single stem or trunk, with a tree-like canopy. Budding is often used to graft buds of the chosen variety onto the trunk rootstock. In this application, several buds are grafted to the top of the trunk rootstock and trained into a tree-like canopy. Budding is also used on varieties of plants that are notoriously difficult to successfully propagate with other asexual propagation methods, such as regular grafting, stem cuttings or layering.