Grafting

“ The success of grafting, or inoculating, consists in so placing the bud or graft, that the sap vessels of the inner bark shall exactly join those of the plant into which they are grafted, so that the sap may pass from one into the other. ”

“ It is an excellent plan to dust the trees twice or three times a week, as it will effectually prevent the lodgment of caterpillars.
774. A neat method of Grafting.—Prepare the stock and the graft in the same way as for grafting with clay in the common [196] way. Then take a long slip of India-rubber, three-quarters of an inch broad, and about the thickness of a shilling. Tie one end of this elastic riband with a thread, well prepared by rubbing with shoemakers' wax, to the stock, a little below where it is cut for being joined to the graft ”

“ Grafting is prevalent in many lines of business, especially where one man is entrusted with the letting of contracts, or with the purchase of supplies for a city, corporation, factory or individual. The following will illustrate just how prevalent petty grafting has become and which came to my notice through a case I had occasion to investigate for a certain well-to-do gentleman. This man owned two automobiles and entrusted to his colored chauffeur the purchase of gasoline and supplies for the machines. ”

“ A method that has proved of great value in America is that of skin-grafting in blood. In this method the grafted site is covered with perforated protective silk or rubber tissue, covered with a thin layer of absorbent cotton, or, better, several folds of sterilized gauze, which is kept wet constantly with bovinine. The latter undoubtedly is the means of keeping life in the grafts by supplying the necessary nutrition until the grafts have formed [91] vascular connection, have become firmly adherent, and begin to spread or grow out at their edges. ”

“ Are the hickory stocks potted before you graft, or are you grafting bare roots?
MR. BERNATH: Hickory and oaks are bare rooted. They are too long to pot.
MR. SHESSLER: How many years are lost in this method of bench grafting compared with field grafting trees in the nursery row?
MR. BERNATH: Quite a few. The gentleman is right, if you graft outside where the tree remains, you get a big growth on it.
MR. SHESSLER: In other words, a tree grafted out in the field will have nuts on it three years sooner? ”

“ It is obvious that this mode of grafting, which is called inarching, can only be practised with plants in pots, as it requires the two plants that are to be united to be brought close together, and to remain so till the graft has taken effect. ”

“ Skin grafting of granulating surfaces is chiefly employed to promote healing in the large defects of skin caused by severe burns; the grafting is carried out when the surface is covered by a uniform layer of healthy granulations and before the inevitable contraction of scar tissue makes itself manifest. Before applying the grafts it is usual to scrape away the granulations until the young fibrous tissue underneath is exposed, but, if the granulations are healthy and can be rendered aseptic, the grafts may be placed on them directly. ”

“ Bernath to tell us a good method.
MR. BERNATH: I don't graft too many outside, but I do my propagating in the greenhouse. I had more than a thousand graftings growing, some of them this high [indicating] which greatly depends upon the root system and the condition of the soil. I think that is the fastest and easiest way of grafting chestnuts. I do my grafting sitting down.
MEMBER: That's on the potted stock.
MR. BERNATH: That's right.
MEMBER: After you have produced all these grafts, what are you going to do with them?
MR. BERNATH: Sell them.
MR. STOKE: I tried to contact some nurseries. ”

“ Natural grafting may often be observed by the student of nature when wandering among his favorites of the sylvan shades. There can be no doubt that the first hint was thus communicated to the early gardeners. In nature we always find the grafting to be inarching, or grafting by approach; two limbs or even two trees approximating closely, have abraded one another, and have afterward united their tissues most firmly together. This is generally a union of two trees of the same variety or species ”

“ Wedge-grafting is by no means the only way to graft, although it is about the only method of grafting large trees. There are from ten to twenty other modes of grafting, the difference being in the manner of cutting the cion, and in fitting it to the stock. To go into detail in regard to them would occupy too much space in these limited pages. Any one, with a little practice, can learn to cut a cion, and to graft with success. [Pg 31]
CHAPTER XIII. HANGING BASKETS.—WARDIAN CASES AND JARDINIERES.
Hanging Baskets for plants are made of different materials, and in a great variety of forms. ”

“ He was paid "by the piece," "three-halfpence a graft and cider," quantity not specified, but an important part of the bargain because of a superstition that grafts "unwetted" would not thrive! Some of these large trees would have ten or more limbs requiring separate grafting, and therefore they earned him a considerable sum, but it is surprising how soon they make a new head, come into bearing, and repay with interest the cost of the work. ”

“ Graft near the ground all those which are sending suckers from below the graft. Suckers from above grafting point can be trained into trees by selecting the best, tying to stakes to straighten up and removing all other suckers but the one selected. ”

“ Skin-grafting is a subject which has long been more or less familiar to medical men, but which has only recently been developed to a practically successful operation. The older surgeons knew that it was possible to reunite a resected nose or an amputated finger, and in Hunter's time tooth-replantation was quite well known. Smellie has recorded an instance in which, after avulsion of a nipple in suckling, restitution was effected. It is not alone to the skin that grafting is applicable; it is used in the cornea, nerves, muscles, bones, tendons, and teeth. ”

“ If a man has found that he can put on one graft more quickly, that he has a technic that gives him speed, which is one of the essentials of grafting, if you can put on the whip graft quicker than I can put the other on, do it. ”

“ If the stock used for grafting is of very considerable thickness, it is the best plan to insert the graft between the bark and the wood; for which purpose a wedge made of bone is best, for fear lest when the bark is loosened the wood should be bruised. In the cherry, the bark is removed before the incision in the stock is made; this, too, is the only tree that is grafted after the winter solstice. When the bark is removed, this tree presents a sort of downy substance, which, if it happens to adhere to the graft, will very speedily destroy it. ”

“ The people have strongly suspected graft in surgery, many of them know it, and nearly all have been taught by journals of the new schools that such grafting is a characteristic of medical schools, and is asserted to be condoned and encouraged by the profession as a whole. How refreshing, then, to hear a representative surgeon of the American Medical Association say:
“The moral standards set for professional men are going to be higher in the future, and with the limelight of public opinion turned on the medical and surgical grafter, the evil will cease to exist.” ”

“ In grafting young nursery trees not more than an inch in diameter, the whole tree is cut off at any distance from the ground convenient to the nurseryman. Sometimes they are cut within a few inches of the ground, sometimes two or three feet. In my work, I like to keep the scions as high above the ground as I can. When the top of a stock is cut off, there is a great deal of sap pressure and the tree bleeds. It is a poor policy to attempt grafting while this is happening. Rather, one should cut the tops off, then wait for several days before inserting any grafts. Tools must be kept very sharp. ”

“ IMP (O. Eng. impa, a graft, shoot; the verb impian is cognate with Ger. impfen, to graft, inoculate, and the Fr. enter; the ultimate origin is probably the Gr. ἐμφύειν, to implant, cf. ἔμφυτος, engrafted) , originally a slip or shoot of a plant or tree used for grafting. This use is seen in Chaucer (Prologue to the Monk’s Tale, 68) “Of fieble trees ther comen wrecched ympes.” The verb “to imp” in the sense of “to graft” was especially used of the grafting of feathers on to the wing of a falcon or hawk to replace broken or damaged plumage, and is frequently used metaphorically. ”

“ The Chinese are fond of making fantastic experiments in grafting and sometimes succeed in the most heterogeneous combinations, such as grafting flowers upon fruit trees. Plants growing near each other can sometimes be grafted by the roots, or on the living root of a tree cut down another tree can be grafted. The scions are those shoots which united with the stock form the graft. It is desirable that the sap of the stock should be in brisk and healthy motion at the time of grafting. ”

“ The universal practice around here in grafting is to cut the whole top off the tree at the time of grafting, but the increased growth and vigor of the grafts I have has proved to me and other growers around, that much better results are obtained by leaving part of the top on the tree at the time of grafting. ”

“ For the little grafting which any school would do, it is better to buy the wax of a seedsman. However, grafting is hardly to be recommended as a general school diversion, as the making of cuttings is; and this account of it is inserted chiefly to satisfy the general curiosity on the subject. But we hope that now and then a youngster will make the effort for himself, for nothing is more exciting than to make a graft grow all by one's self.
Fig. 269. The bud set in the matrix. One-half natural size.
Cleft-grafting is done in spring, as growth begins. ”

“ Then you apply the grafting wax. The one we use is three of resin, one of beeswax, and lampblack and a little bit of linseed oil. Cover up the graft entirely, except don't cover over the lower end of this paper because there is the drainage where the sap flows out. ”

“ It is then to be tied with a ligature of bass, and clayed over, as is practised in whip-grafting, three or four eyes being left on the cyon uncovered. The proper season for this mode of grafting is the same as for the preceding, viz. the months of February and March: towards the latter end of May, or the beginning of June, the junction of the graft and stock will be completed, and the latter begin to shoot; when the clay may be taken off, and, in the course of a fortnight or three weeks, the bandages may be removed. ”

“ In grafting upon a large stock, or upon the tops of an old tree, the process called cleft grafting is generally used. Here, as in all forms of this process, the object to be attained, is the co-aptation of the inner bark of both stock and scion. The latter is held in its place by the clasping of the former, and is also covered by some material that is pliant, and which will exclude the air and moisture.
The advantages of stock-grafting are the changing of an old tree from bad to good fruit, which is produced in a few years ”

“ These modes of grafting can all be more successfully practiced on stocks in pots in green-houses with bottom heat and bell glasses. We have given thus concisely, and, we hope, clearly, the various modes of budding and grafting with which we are acquainted. They may be sufficient to enable the amateur to amuse his leisure hours, though his success may not entirely meet his expectations. ”

“ Inarching is another form of side-grafting. Here the graft is fixed to the side of the stock, which is planted or potted close to the plant to be worked. The branches are applied to the stock while yet attached to the parent tree, and remain so until united. In the case of trained trees, a young shoot is sometimes inarched to its parent stem to supply a branch where one has not been developed in the ordinary way.
For the propagation by grafts of stove and greenhouse plants the process adopted is whip-grafting or a modification of it. ”

“ It is not every vine that admits the grafting process; if it be old and decayed, or if it be weak and slender, the vine either will not receive the cutting, or will not nourish it and make it a part of itself, nor will it accommodate itself to the qualities and nature of the grafted part. Hence we usually cut off the vine above ground, so that if we do not get results at first, we may try a second venture, and on a second trial graft it below the ground. ”

“ This favorite method of multiplying varieties has some advantages over grafting, and is by many preferred on account of the facility with which it can be performed, and because it affords a means of increasing sorts in the nursery that have not been grafted, and of filling up gaps in the rows where grafts have missed ”

“ Out of 200 plants grafted we have growing 16 nice plants from 18 to 24 inches tall, an 8% stand. The roots of the Barcelona layers died also on the grafts that failed to live. I believe the main trouble in this experiment was that there was not enough root system to carry the graft rather than the fault of the grafting, as most of the grafts started to grow. ”

“ Chapter 17 GRAFTING TAPE VERSUS RAFFIA
It is necessary that a person who is grafting trees and developing hybrids experiment not only with the plants he is interested in, but also with the equipment and materials he uses. For more than twelve years, I used raffia to tie the grafts I made, becoming more annoyed and irritated with its limitations each year. ”