My Garden

Grafting fruit and roses.

Last post 12-10-2009 9:19 PM by Laura. 4 replies.

• 19/02/2009 02:14 PM

  Roger Location: Worcestershire Joined on: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 4

  Reply | Contact  I am becoming interested in grafting. First Q. I have some young crab apple (malus Sylvestris) plants left over from some Hedgerows that I planted. Can I graft apple buds onto them? What woul be the results. Second Q. I have bought in some rootstocks to have a go at grafting but I have become curious as to where thes rootstocks come from i.e. how are they grown? can I grow them myself? etc. I would also like to have a go at grafting Roses. The same questions are intriguing me. In addition, does anyone know where I can buy the rootstocks for roses? Thanking you in advance for your response to my questions. Roger

• 20/02/2009 12:50 PM

  In reply to

  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2,043

  Reply | Contact That's the spirit, R: Apple roots stocks are propagated by a form of layering called stooling - it is very easy: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8701.html Matthews will sell small quantities of fruit rootstocks I am told: http://www.frankpmatthews.com/  Rose rootstocks are harder to buy - try rose nurseries.  However virtually all growers import rootstocks from Holland and more and more often roses are grwon in Poland.  I expect any Dutch nursery will sell you rootstocks of all sorts, but only by the thousand. You could raise your own dog rose seedlings for use as rootstocks of course. Collect hips from the hedgrows and go through the usual stratification. I believe the rootstocks we use today are selections from Malus pumila centuries ago, but I can see no reason wwhy your Malus sylvestiris should not work.. Budding fruit trees is very very easy, but I have not tried budding roses. grafting is rather more demanding, but practice is the key I am told by skilled grafters.   Boggy               Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 21/02/2009 12:02 PM

  In reply to

  Ant Location: Berkshire Joined on: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 13

  Reply | Contact Grafting is quite a skilled job but very rewarding if you are successful. The first thing you need is a good SHARP knife. The other extra is grafting tape and wax to bind the graft with. For roses the usual technique is T budding. The buds are then kept in place with a rubber binding tie that has a metal staple to keep it in place. Chip budding is often used for trees and is easier than grafting. Does anyone know where you can get rose budding ties in small quantities? Ant.

• 22/02/2009 09:02 AM

  In reply to

  Roger Location: Worcestershire Joined on: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 4

  Reply | Contact  Thank you for replying to my query regarding Grafting fruit trees and roses. Why and how do you use the staples? With respect to the rubber bands, I believe that originally they used Raffia. Which is what I have bought and used yesterday. However you could try Kevin at Walcot Nurseries in Walcott Pershore I know he has them because he gave me a couple to try, but that was last year and I have put them somewhere safe. www.walcotnursery.co.uk - I' ve had some fruit trees off him. Also had some from Frank P Mathews which i was not particularly happy with. Had a couple die on me and they could not replace them so I bought the replacements from Kevin and used the credit fro FPM to buy some rootstocks. Hence my Interest. Anyway, jobs done now and things as they say are "in the lap of the god."

• 12/10/2009 09:19 PM	In reply to
  Laura Location: London Joined on: 02 Aug 2009 Posts: 14	Reply | Contact  You have Matthews near you who are great for fruit but they don't deliver which is a pain.  We get our fruit tree rootstocks from Ashridge Trees who are in Somerset but they deliver all over (well to my parents in Leicestershire anyway...). They sell them singly if you want to have a go.  Good luck - Lady Elle