How To: Z-Graft New Apple Trees

When I learned how to graft apples trees, around eight years ago, I was taught the traditional ‘whip and tongue’¹I recently noticed that most fruit gardening manuals of nineteenth century or older vintage call the method ‘whip or tongue’ rather than ‘whip and tongue’, suggesting that at some point somebody switched the emphasis around, and the new version stuck. Which is interesting. To me, anyway. method of grafting, and I used that reasonably happily for the first five or six years of my grafting career²A few minor finger- or thumb-flesh wounds aside… and achieved reasonably good results, in terms of the ratio of grafts that were successful to those that failed.

Then a couple of years ago I learned about, and started using, a slightly different method: the z-graft³Pronounced ‘zed graft’ or ‘zee graft’, most likely depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re from., and I’ve come to appreciate that it’s not just easier and safer to perform, but seems to give a better success-to-failure ratio, on first impression at least. By which I mean that when I grafted 16 new apple trees last year, using z-grafting for all of them, I enjoyed a 100% success rate – 16/16 trees successfully grafted and put on new growth – compared with around an 85% to 95% success rate in previous years.

I realise this was just one year of particularly good results and isn’t a statistically significant sample size, but it was still a noticeable improvement on previous years’ results, and I was impressed enough with the z-grafting method that I used it exclusively again this year, when I grafted 24 new apple trees, just last week. Here’s how:

How to Apply the Z-Graft Method

As with any grafting operation, the aim is to expose the cambium – the layer of tissue just under the bark of the stem that’s packed full of rapidly dividing cells – on both the rootstock and the scion, and then join the two exposed sections of cambium in a manner that provides as much cambium-to-cambium contact as possible, whilst also offering a stable graft union⁴The latter is usually achieved by wrapping the join in grafting tape, but an inherently unstable join is always going to be prone to being knocked out of alignment, and so the more inherent stability there is in the physical configuration of the graft union, the better..

The first step in the z-graft method is to make matching cuts across the top of the rootstock and the bottom of the scion – which you can accomplish with a sharp pair of secateurs, rather than a grafting knife⁵This is easier and safer then the initial whip-and-tongue cut, which needs to be longer and flatter, and therefore requires knife-work. – at approximately a 45° angle, like so:

Step two: position your grafting knife across the top of the longer edge of the cut end of the rootstock, and slice carefully downwards, about 1-2mm under the bark, making a cut around 1.5cm long. There’s a technique that involves pressing your thumbs together that will help avoid knife-slips and cuts – Stephen Hayes demonstrates it nicely at 5:02 in the saddle grafting video that I’ve posted at the end of this article – and you can also apply sticking plasters to your thumbs to help protect against minor knife-nicks.

The cut needs to be deep enough that the bark-flap won’t be so weak that it just peels off, but not so deep that it won’t easily bend away from the stem:

Please excuse my phone camera’s irritating habit of auto-focusing on the background rather than the actual subject of the photograph. And don’t worry if you do go a bit deeper, or cut a little longer than 1.5cm, it will all work out fine.

Next: you’ll need to make the same type of cut on the scion, resulting in two matching cut stems with bark-flaps (again, the photo is annoyingly mis-focused, but hopefully you get the gist):

Next: join the rootstock and scion together by positioning the two stems with the cuts facing each other, long edge to long edge, and then pushing them together, like so:

At this point, you should assess the join. Are the pointed ends of each stem nestling neatly into the crook of the bark-flap on the opposite stem? Are the edges straight enough to provide good cambium contact, without daylight showing between them? If they’re not quite right then now’s the time to adjust your cuts, either by straightening the edges, or deepening the bark slices slightly. Also, if the bark flaps are protruding from the sides of the opposing stem, then now’s the time to clip them with your secateurs, or trim them with your knife.

Once you’re done adjusting, you should have a scion and rootstock union that you’re reasonably happy with, and which clearly demonstrates where the ‘z’ in ‘z-grafting’ comes from:

You’ll notice that the bark flaps cover all – or part, depending on the relative widths of the rootstock and scion – of the cut end of the opposing stem. This provides a small measure of protection and some additional cambium contact between the two.

The penultimate step is to wrap the two stems in grafting tape – you can use parafilm, buddy tape, or strips cut from freezer bags if you like – to bind them tightly together, hopefully preventing the graft from shifting and dislodging whilst the callus tissue forms and the graft union is solidified:

An extra measure of protection can be added by sealing the top and bottom of the taped section with grafting wax, to hopefully exclude water and soil from the cut portions of the stems. I didn’t take a photo of this stage, but it just involves applying the wax to the edges of the taped section. Traditional grafting wax is rock-hard and has to be melted over a heat source then applied with a brush, which is a bit of a faff, so I prefer to use a softer wax – a mixture of beeswax, tallow and resin, which I bought from Bee Beautiful on eBay – which can be made malleable just with the heat of your hands, and smeared on with your fingers.

Finally, and extremely importantly, don’t forget to label your newly-grafted tree! I like to use soft metal plant labels – like these Zhichengbosi⁶This is an Amazon affiliate link, but you should be able to find other sources if you’d prefer not to shop at Amazon. ones – because they’re very difficult indeed to erase⁷You imprint (emboss?) the wording with a pencil and then it won’t rub off or fade in the sun like pencil or ‘permanent’ ink.. I like to record the name of the cultivar, the type of rootstock I’ve grafted it to, and the month & year in which I carried out the grafting:

The whole process took me approximately five or six minutes per tree, but with practice I could probably get it down to three or four. The tape-wrapping and labelling is the part that takes the most time. The actual z-grafting – as long as the initial cuts turn out well – is quick and easy.

Here’s One I Made Earlier

[Edit 16.03.25] After I’d posted this article, someone on BlueSky asked if I had any examples of a healed z-graft to show how the graft union develops. As I was heading back down the allotment and knew I had just such a thing handy, so I thought I’d take a few extra photos to illustrate a healed graft union on one of the tree’s that I grafted last year:

As you can see, the graft union has healed very nicely indeed, with plenty of callus tissue forming along both the vertical join and around the bark flaps on either side. Over time, as both the rootstock and scion portion of the main stem grow and thicken, I’d expect that join to become a lot less distinct and visible, eventually merging in to the bark of what I hope will be a healthy and productive tree for years to come.

Z-Graft and Whip-and-Tongue Compared

The two main reasons I’ve come to prefer z-grafting to whip-and-tongue grafting are that the cutting and slicing parts of the operation are simpler and safer to perform, and the end result is a similarly stable graft configuration, although to be fair, a whip-and-tongue graft union is marginally more secure.

If you’re familiar with whip-and-tongue yourself, you’ll know that the tricky part of the operation – once you’ve made an acceptable slice cut across the end of the stem – is cutting the ‘tongue’. This often means trying to slice into and through the slightly tougher, woodier central section of both the rootstock and scion, where a grafting knife can easily catch or slip, and the stem can sometimes split unexpectedly, leading to accidental slicing through the back of the stem, or sometimes into fingers or thumbs.

Z-grafting is easier because the initial 45° cut can be made with secateurs rather than a knife, and the slice-cut to peel back the strip of bark is made at a much shallower depth, away from that tricky woody tissue at the centre of the stem. You have more control over the cut, and there’s much less chance of slippage.

In terms of cambial contact, then perhaps whip-and-tongue offers a slightly larger surface area of direct contact between the cut parts of the scion and stock. But the down-side of that is that it’s often harder to make nicely compatible cuts; again, due to the necessity of cutting into that woody tissue, which can be prone to splitting rather than neatly slicing. I’d say it’s easier to achieve a flat, straight cut with the z-graft method, and it’s easier to adjust the cut edges if they’re not quite right.

Z-Grafting is also a very good method to use when attempting to join a smaller, thinner scion to a larger, thicker rootstock. As long as one edge of the scion tightly matches one edge of the stock then there’s a good chance that the graft will take, and enough callus tissue will form to secure the graft. Then, over time, the two sections will enlarge and merge into a single, strong main trunk.

Another bit of anecdotal evidence in favour of z-grafting: I taught a grafting workshop at work a couple of weekends ago, in which demonstrated four different methods: simple splice grafting, saddle grafting, whip-and-tongue grafting and z-grafting. Seven participants, six of whom were grafting novices, were invited to graft three trees each. Having watched me demonstrate the methods and having practised all four methods for themselves, I think nearly everyone chose to use the z-graft method to graft their new trees, apart from one or two instances of a saddle graft. But I don’t remember anyone opting to use whip-and-tongue. This perhaps suggests that z-grafting is a more intuitively simple method for a novice grafter to learn and apply.

One last thing, just to be clear: I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with whip-and-tongue. It’s a perfectly good, tried-and-tested grafting method that has been successfully used to make new trees for centuries. But even if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool whip-and-tongue advocate, or an expert who’s been using the method for decades, please do give z-grafting a try, see what you think of it in general terms, and compare your results to those achieved via the old classic. I’d really like to hear what you think of it, once you’ve tried it .

Further Sources of Z-Grafting Information

There are some very useful videos of the Z-Grafting method in action on YouTube, although please note that some of the folks who say they’re demonstrating z-grafting are actually demonstrating whip-and-tongue instead. You can’t always tell which method they’re using until they begin the process, but if they start by cutting a long, slicing cut across a stem then they’re probably about to whip-and-tongue rather than z-graft.

Here though is a good, clear z-grafting demonstration video by Chris Homanics of Heads, Hands & Heart Nursery, via the Agrarian Sharing Network‘s channel:

One here, from JSacadura, uses a slightly different method, with an additional smaller cut used as a guide to where to make the vertical slice:

And another that demonstrates the z-grafting method to graft new citrus trees, this time via the Fruitmentor channel:

And finally, a quick bonus item: if you’re curious about the ‘saddle graft’ that I mentioned earlier, here’s a demonstration video by veteran orchardist Stephen Hayes:

So, how about you? Have you tried the z-graft method? Have you had good results with it? Are you a fan? Or do you prefer the traditional whip-and-tongue, or another method entirely? Do please let me know, via the comments.

Footnotes

• 1
  I recently noticed that most fruit gardening manuals of nineteenth century or older vintage call the method ‘whip or tongue’ rather than ‘whip and tongue’, suggesting that at some point somebody switched the emphasis around, and the new version stuck. Which is interesting. To me, anyway. ↩︎
• 2
  A few minor finger- or thumb-flesh wounds aside… ↩︎
• 3
  Pronounced ‘zed graft’ or ‘zee graft’, most likely depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re from. ↩︎
• 4
  The latter is usually achieved by wrapping the join in grafting tape, but an inherently unstable join is always going to be prone to being knocked out of alignment, and so the more inherent stability there is in the physical configuration of the graft union, the better. ↩︎
• 5
  This is easier and safer then the initial whip-and-tongue cut, which needs to be longer and flatter, and therefore requires knife-work. ↩︎
• 6
  This is an Amazon affiliate link, but you should be able to find other sources if you’d prefer not to shop at Amazon. ↩︎
• 7
  You imprint (emboss?) the wording with a pencil and then it won’t rub off or fade in the sun like pencil or ‘permanent’ ink. ↩︎