ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Hoein' & Growin'
SOURCE: SARA THORNE-THOMSEN
Have you ever longed to have an apple tree just like the one growing in your parents' yard? Master Gardener Charlie Elgin will teach a grafting workshop on April 22 and 23 that gives participants a chance to learn an ancient art and go home with five fruit trees.
Plants can reproduce either sexually or asexually. Sexual reproduction is the union of pollen and egg, usually with the able assistance of bee, breeze or botanist, to generate a seed. Asexual reproduction uses the roots, stems, and leaves to produce offspring with the same characteristics as their parents.
Grafting is one of the three basic methods of asexual propagation and perhaps most often used to reproduce specific varieties of fruit trees. The other two methods are layering and cuttings. Many kinds of ornamental trees, fruit trees, flowering shrubs, roses and evergreens are easy to propagate at home by these methods, which utilize inexpensive, easily available materials and equipment.
Layering, in its simplest form, occurs when stems still attached to the parent plant form roots where they touch a rooting medium. Typically, forsythia reproduces by layering, and before you know it your original bush is surrounded by lots of children. Although many trees and shrubs can be propagated by layering, in general this method is practical only for propagating a small number of plants, because a branch of the parent plant is needed to form each new plant.
Cuttings allow a single parent plant to yield a large number of new plants. Ever tried to root a stem or leaf from a favorite plant? The new plants are usually small and need to be tended carefully for several years.
Although grafting requires more skill and knowledge than does layering or cuttings, it is the most satisfying form of plant propagation.
When you join parts of plants together so that they unite and grow as one plant, you are grafting. Using bud grafting, you can propagate a large number of new plants from a small amount of propagating material. Or using cleft or tongue grafting, you can have large new plants soon after propagating.
The scion, the portion of the culitivar that is to be propagated, consists of a piece of shoot with dormant buds that will produce the stems and branches. The rootstock, or stock, provides the new plant's root system and sometimes the lower part of the stem from which new bark and wood cell originate.
In Charlie Elgin's grafting workshop, learn bud, cleft and tongue grafting and learn more about the four conditions that must be met for grafting to be successful: the scion and rootstock must be compatible; each must be at the proper physiological stage; the cambial layers of the scion and stock must meet; and the graft union must be kept moist until the wound has healed.
Learn the ancient and valuable art of perpetuating varieties of plants, especially tree fruits not easily propagated by other methods, and satisfy your desire to pass along an heirloom apple tree. Discover the benefits of certain root stocks and learn to generate a dogwood with white and pink flowers or an apple tree with more than one variety of fruit.
The New River Valley Master Gardener Association in conjunction with the Montgomery Cooperative Extension office, is sponsoring Elgin's workshop on April 22 and 23 from 7 to 9 p.m. The cost is $18.
Register at 382-5790 by April 12. Several rootstocks and more than 15 apple varieties will be available and you may bring scion wood to share with others in the workshop.
If you need special assistance to attend the workshop, contact the Montgomery County Extension office at 382-5790 one week before the event.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB