Home Garden
# Home & Garden >> Plants, Flowers & Herbs >> Trees

Scion's Influence on Fruit Trees

In today's orchards, with few exceptions, the branches that bear the fruit differ genetically from the root system that anchors and nourishes the trees. This is due to propagation by grafting. Starring in the production, the scion, or upper shoot system, carries the genes for outstanding fruit. Rootstocks are usually chosen for their vigor, which may surpass that of the scion's own roots. Functioning as one, the union preserves the best varieties. For beginners, the easiest trees to graft include apple, pear, plum and cherry.

  1. Advantages of Grafting

    • Using rootstocks allows a given tree to adapt in soil conditions that would otherwise be impossible. They may also provide superior protection against soil-borne pests, such as nematodes, or pathogens, such as root and crown rots and wilt diseases. To control tree size or speed up fruit ripening, you can graft scions onto dwarfing roots. Grafting even offers an opportunity to grow multiple fruit varieties on a single plant, which could accommodate mixing early and late fruit. Therefore, you may foil frost with varying bloom times.

    Scion Selection

    • Naturally, you must first decide what type fruit you want to grow, considering your taste preferences and your climate. Carefully cut scions from one-year-old, vigorously growing branches with long spaces between the buds. Look for single-bud wood rather than that containing bud clusters. To encourage new growth suitable for scion wood, cut back some tree branches in winter the previous year. As a scion can have a bad influence on a fruit tree, watch for viruses, such as apple mosaic virus, that can carry to the roots. A problem common to multi-grafted trees is faster-growing varieties choking out the others.

    Preparing the Scion

    • Scion wood must be dormant when you take your cuttings. Collect scions from deciduous plants when the leaves are mostly gone and the buds remain small, not swollen yet. They will keep for two to five months, depending on the species, if refrigerated at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Place scions in labeled, airtight, plastic bags, along with a few drops of water. Wait to graft late-bloomers; grafts can dry out if the scion and rootstock are joined too early. The holding of scion wood becomes particularly important in cleft grafting, used on well-established stock plants when propagation has not been successful by other means.

    Placing the Graft

    • If the scion and rootstock come from similar species, the graft has a greater chance of being successful. Grafting to control size or overcome soil problems may necessitate going outside the species, however. Match the thin, filmy layers of the green cambium, just under the bark, so that food can easily pass between the two parts. Grafts should take place when the sap is running and the cambium is growing. Insert the scion into the trunk of the rootstock tree. While the graft union heals, hold the two together tightly and securely with string or rubber bands, then seal with grafting wax to prevent drying. With luck, scion and rootstock will unite to fulfill their roles in a healthy, productive fruit tree.

Previous:

Next:

Trees
  1. What Is a Fruit Spur?
  2. Florida Tropical Fruit Trees
  3. Longan Fruit Trees
  4. Mango Growth
  5. Salt on Fruit Trees
  6. Fungus in Avocado Trees
  7. Tangerine Trees & Fruit Flies
  8. Fruit Tree Recommendations
  9. Organic Fruit Trees in Tennessee
  10. When to Trim Fruit Trees
  11. Frost Damage on Fruit Trees
  12. Description of Blackberry Trees

Home Garden © https://www.98905.com