Multitasking Fruit Trees: Why Graft Trees?

Graft a few varieties to a single fruit tree and check out new tastes.

By Amy Grisak
Updated on August 29, 2009
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Eric Hatch
A towering ornamental Bradford Pear tree in full bloom is quite a sight to see.

Why graft trees? To grow multiple fruit varieties on a single healthy, sturdy tree! Learn these three techniques for grafting fruit trees, step by step.

Did you ever see five varieties of apples growing on one tree? Have you wondered about the difference between standard, semi-dwarf and dwarf versions of the same fruit variety? Ever see a pear growing on a quince tree? These horticultural tricks are all about the ancient art of grafting. Although shrouded in mystery, grafting fruit trees is a simple process that requires minimal equipment and effort, yet lets the home gardener grow an almost limitless number of fruit varieties on relatively few trees. In its most basic form, grafting involves inserting a piece of branch, called a scion, of one tree variety into the stem or trunk of another. This allows you to grow a multitude of varieties on one tree.

Nothing new under the sun

Grafting has been a horticultural staple for thousands of years. Records from Theophrastus, generally regarded as the Father of Botany in Ancient Greece, describe the process as far back as 300 B.C. As civilization marched across the world, these effective techniques followed. In Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder wrote extensively of grafting practices, and the basic methods continue to this day.

In current applications, grafting and bud-grafting (incorporating single bud pieces of scion instead of a two- or three-budded scion onto a common rootstock) is critical to the fruit tree industry.

“Modern apple production is probably more sophisticated than any horticultural art,” says Dr. Ken Mudge, associate professor of horticulture at Cornell University in New York, who teaches courses in grafting trees and shrubs.

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