Grafting 101
Telling you about the Pres removing a young Elm because it was showing signs of disease and the two little Japanese maples (acer palmatum dissectum red select cutleaf) that I planted a while back, I have an update. Thanks to COVID 19 and staying home has given me the opportunity to replace my three times a week workout at the gym with 6 days a week of gardening and yard work.
Being home more frequently makes me even more observant with what's going on in "our world." The other day I noticed that the two little "Laceleaf" maples had grown a few new leaves. However, upon examining the leaves a little closer, I realized that these two trees had been grafted.
Since I know nothing about "grafting" I immediately Googled to get the scoop and learned quite a bit about the process. Continuing my reading, I found out that grafting is basically done to take the best attributes from both plants and merging them into the new plant. For instance, if the root plant/tree is known for having a good root system, and the specimen plant/tree is know for it's lacy leaved, draping canopy, the result would be the sum of both.
In addition, any new growth BELOW the graft should be cut off while any new growth ABOVE the graft should be nurtured. So with clippers almost always in hand, off came all the new beautiful leaves on one little tree. The other little tree showed new leaves ABOVE the graft, so they stayed.
Hmmmm...maybe this COVID thing can have it's advantages...if you choose to let them in.
seeing, saying, and sharing...
Grafting 101
with you and those at
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