Finding Scion Wood to Graft an Heirloom-Variety Home Orchard

Reader Contribution by Holly Stockley
Published on March 16, 2022
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by Holly Stockley
Apple orchard at harvest.

As gardeners search seed catalogs for this years’ planting planning while the snow piles up outside the windows, orchardists make lists of varieties they’d like to graft. While tree catalogs are fun, most of them offer a very limited number of varieties. For example, there are something on the order of 7,000 named varieties of apples. The average fruit tree nursery catalog might have 20 or 30.

Many fruits, apples included, don’t grow true from seed. They are “cloned” by the process of grafting. A small piece of live wood from the desired variety with some dormant buds is coaxed into growing into and becoming a part of a rooted seedling. The resulting new tree will bear fruit that is from that small piece of wood. That means that acquiring a rare or heritage variety means finding someone who can share with you a small piece of that live wood to graft.

Grafting, then, is how most homestead and hobby orchardists add more unusual varieties to their collections. But how and where do you find all these wonderful fruits? If you’ve added grafting to your skillset — and it’s easy to learn — then the next step is to find a good source for scion wood.

Scion Wood Standards

Scion wood usually comes as small, short sticks of wood with multiple buds. Good quality scion wood is around 1/4″ in diameter, with multiple nice fat buds, well-spaced down the length. And a good provider of scion will tell you in advance what to expect.

Particularly rare varieties are sometimes available only as shorter, more slender scions. They’re harder, but not impossible to graft. Try to stick to the larger pieces while you’re still learning. Or hedge your bets and graft several small scions, if that’s all you can get.

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