Welcome to another ‘From the Experts’ post in which, rather than pretending I have anything new to add to the store of knowledge on a particular orchard-related subject, I instead point you in the direction of some quality content that I’ve found on YouTube.
Apple and pear grafting season is in full swing at the moment – I’ve spent a happy few hours at work recently grafting new trees for Ordsall Hall‘s heritage orchard and/or plant sales – and I know many folks will be trying grafting for the first time, or be keen to brush up on the skills and techniques that they probably won’t have practised since last year.
Speaking of practice, if you’re in the Manchester, UK area and would like to learn or practice fruit tree grafting under the tutelage of an experienced grafter, check out the Kindling Trust’s event page. They’re planning to graft upwards of 12,000 fruit trees over the next couple of years and need all the help they can get, so they’re laying on volunteer sessions – effectively a free tutorial – for anyone with a steady hand and a good eye who’s keen to learn.
Anyhow, without further ado, here’s a selection of tree grafting videos that demonstrate a range of both bench grafting (joining scions to lifted rootstock) and field grafting (joining scions to an established, planted tree) techniques, for anyone who’s interested in learning more. Or, if you’d prefer text-only, there’s a very good summary of various techniques at RealEnglishFruit.co.uk, with links out to more video demonstrations.
The Orchard Project
With bases in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh, The Orchard Project works to develop and support community orchard projects and teach orcharding skills. This film demonstrates the whip-and-tongue bench grafting technique.
People’s Trust for Endangered Species
The PTES website has lots of information on traditional orcharding and this short film covers the basics of whip-and-tongue grafting.
Stephen Hayes
Winchester-based veteran orchardist and author of Tales From an English Orchard, Stephen has probably grafted more fruit trees than I’ve had hot dinners. In this collection of videos he explains a range of grafting techniques for both bench and field.
Saddle Grafting
Rind Grafting
Cleft Grafting
Whip and Tongue Grafting
Saddle, Cleft and Rind Grafting
And finally, if you’re in the mood for experimenting, via the ‘Growing With Julie’ YouTube channel, here’s Nigel – a fella who clearly knows his fruit trees, if his amazing-looking allotment plot is anything to go by – trying the ‘drill grafting’ method (and using Vaseline instead of grafting wax; a lower-cost and easier-to-source alternative, but I would assume not a capital ‘O’ Organic one).
How about you? Do you have a tired-and-tested, favourite grafting method? Do you have any grafting questions that I might be able to answer, or point you in the right direction with? Do let me know, via the comments.