The Cold Turnkey

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What do the terms grafting and budding mean?

Budding is a form of grafting. Grafting is the art of
attaching a piece of one plant to another plant, creating a new
plant. Grafting is usually done because the desired plant is
extremely difficult if not impossible to propagate through other
means. Dogwoods, for example, are easily grown from seed,
however, it is next to impossible to grow a Pink Dogwood from
seed. The seeds from a Pink Dogwood will produce seedlings that
are likely to flower white.

The most common method for producing Pink Dogwood trees is to
remove a single bud from a Pink Dogwood tree and slip it under
the bark of a White Dogwood seedling. This process is known as
budding, and the seedling is known as the rootstock. This is
usually done during the late summer months when the bark of the
White Dogwood seedling can be easily separated from the tree,
and the seedling is about 1/4″ in diameter.

A very small “T” shaped cut is made in the bark only, and the
bud is slipped in the slot. The actual bud itself is allowed to
poke out through the opening and then the wound is wrapped with
a rubber band both above and below the bud. By the following
spring the bud will have grafted itself to the seedling, at
which time the seedling is cut off just above the Pink Dogwood
bud, and the bud then grows into a Pink Dogwood tree.

Budding is usually done at ground level, and often times the
rootstock will send up shoots from below the bud union. These
shoots, often called suckers, should be removed as soon as they
appear because they are from the rootstock and are not the same
variety as the rest of the plant. Flowering Crabapples are also
budded and are notorious for producing suckers. When removing
these suckers don’t just clip them off at ground level with
pruning shears, they will just grow back. Pull back the soil or
mulch and remove them from the tree completely at the point
where they emerge from the stem.

Most people clip them off a couple of inches from the ground,
and then they grow back with multiple shoots. This drives me
crazy! Get down as low as you can and remove them completely and
you will keep them under control. On older trees that have been
improperly pruned for years I take a digging spade and literally
attack these suckers hacking them away from the stem. Sure this
does a little damage to the stem of the tree, but when a plant
is let go like that I figure it’s a do or die situation. The
trees always survive and thrive.

Other plants are grafted up high to create a weeping effect.
One of the most popular trees that is grafted up high is the top
graft Weeping Cherry. In this case the seedling is allowed to
grow to a height of 5′, then the weeping variety is grafted on
to the rootstock at a height of about 5′. This creates an
umbrella type effect. In this case the graft union is 5′ off the
ground, therefore anything that grows from the stem below that
graft union must be removed.

Many people don’t understand this and before they know it they
have a branch 2″ in diameter growing up through the weeping
canopy of their tree. Before you know it there are several
branches growing upright through the canopy and the effect of
the plant is completely ruined.

At my website, http://gardening-articles.com I’ve got a couple
of photos that show exactly what I’m talking about in this
article. You can clearly see the weeping effect that the
Weeping Cherry tree is supposed to have, but then up through the
middle come these branches that are no more than just suckers
from the stem, or the rootstock as it is known in the nursery
industry.

Looking closely at the photos you can see that these suckers
originate from below the graft union. This problem could have
been prevented if someone had just picked off these buds when
they first emerged on the stem of the tree. Then they would
have never developed into branches.

This tree can still be saved, but there will be a large scar on
the stem when the upright branches are pruned off. But under
the canopy of the weeping tree these scars will never show.

Another interesting plant that is grafted is the Weeping
Cotoneaster. In this case the seedling that is grown to serve as
the rootstock is Paul’s Scarlet Hawthorn, and Cotoneaster
Apiculata is grafted onto the Hawthorn rootstock at a height of
5′. Years ago a nurseryman found through experimentation that
these two plants are actually compatible, and a beautiful and
unique plant was created. I have one of these in my landscape
and we love it.

Once again since the graft union is at 5′, any growth coming
from the stem (rootstock) must be removed. In this case the
growth coming from the rootstock will be Hawthorn and will look
completely different from the Cotoneaster which is what the
plant is supposed to be. The easiest way to keep up with this
type of pruning is to keep an eye on your grafted plants when
you’re in the yard. As soon as you see new growth coming from
below the graft union, just pick it off with your fingernail.

If you catch these new buds when they first emerge, pruning
them off is as easy as that. Walk around your yard and look for
grafted or budded plants, and see if you can find any that have
growth that doesn’t seem to match the rest of the plant. Look
closely and you may find that the growth is coming from below a
graft or bud union.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his
most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up
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