Garden grafting (colling) is a method of propagation of trees and shrubs that poorly take root in our climate or rarely transmit their qualities through seeds. In the process of vaccination, two plants are connected to each other in such a way that after engraftment a single organism is formed.
Having mastered the methods of tinting, you can fill your garden plot with the best and newest varieties.
Why do trees are tinted
Vaccination allows you to combine the growth rate and endurance of the stock with the useful qualities of the upper part. In addition, it has other advantages:
- All the useful qualities of the varietal tree are preserved (they are lost during seed formation and pollination). Plants grown from seeds often turn out to be wild and fit only as a stock.
- If you take a stalk from a cultivated tree , then a young tree can bring the first fruits in only a few years. When vaccinating him to an already rooted shoot, this period is reduced by almost 2 times.
- Coloring trees allows you to grow even delicate and very demanding varieties in the garden that are not adapted to our climate. Thanks to the hardy root system of the stock, the plant will become more frost-resistant or drought-resistant.
- Using the right rootstock, you can make the variety dwarf. Berries or fruits will begin to ripen faster, and picking them will be much easier.
- To obtain different fruits from one tree, experienced gardeners plant several varieties at once on the same base. Thus, space is saved on the plot, and the owners enjoy a variety of fruits. This method is also good for testing a new variety before a separate place is allocated for it. You can also plant a variety that will serve for pollination.
- If a young tree is damaged by the sun, frost or rodents, a bridge bridge will help put it in order.
- It takes a lot of time and effort to replace trees with new and young ones. Coloring trees will allow you to completely renew the garden in a much shorter time.
Base and Scion Compatibility
The success of plant engraftment can only be if they fit together. It is very important that their biorhythms coincide, i.e. time of rest and active sap flow. Even an experienced gardener will not be able to successfully cross an apple tree with a cherry, mountain ash or plum. But the same plum can thrive on genetically close cherry plum, and on cherry - cherry.
It is recommended to choose a stock and scion from one genus. Moreover, it is extremely undesirable to grow summer and winter varieties on one tree, since the plant’s vital rhythm is violated, and it can freeze in winter.
Vaccination of fruit trees in spring
Spring is considered the best time to work in the garden. It is during this period of time that trees are grafted. For this, any method that suits you best is suitable. But it is important to remember that the graft vaccine is administered before the kidneys swell, so it’s better not to delay it. Otherwise, the procedure will have to be postponed until the summer.
Coloring trees in the spring is exactly the time when you can achieve maximum effect. This is what experienced gardeners use. Vaccination can be started when there are no negative temperatures at night, and during the day the air warms up to + 10 ° C. Work is completed at the end of May.
Before the procedure, the tree is abundantly watered, then the soil around it is loosened. This helps to penetrate the roots of oxygen, to saturate them with the necessary substances that accelerate development and growth.
Tree grafting in summer
Trees are tinted in summer from the 20th of July until the end of August. They start it with a pear, then plant an apple tree, plum and cherry. Processing peaches and apricots produce at a later date. The privatny material is procured in advance. And you need to constantly monitor his condition. Vaccination with already growing shoots can lead to an undesirable result.
In the first year or two after tinting, the shoots are very weakened, so they are tied with a garden rope.
Tree grafting in autumn
In fact, autumn is hardly difficult to call a favorable time for tree tinting. As a rule, only material is procured during this period. Although, as an exception, it's still worth a try. But do not postpone the procedure for a long time, because the work needs to be done before the frost.
Coloring of trees in autumn is carried out in a split. The trees grafted during this period can be placed in ordinary plastic bottles and stored in a cool dark place until spring. At a low temperature, intergrowth occurs rather well.
Grafting fruit trees in winter
Sometimes the winter season of the house is also tinted. To do this, in advance, back in mid-autumn, wild shoots and grafting cuttings are prepared and stored in the cold. The procedure is carried out from January to March, after which the plants are kept warm for splicing for a while. Then they are taken to the basement and kept in the cold until they land in the ground. This method is usually used in nurseries and other households.
What you need for vaccination
Before proceeding with tinting, it is necessary to prepare all the necessary materials and tools. This is, first of all, the cuttings and rootstocks themselves. In addition, you will need a special knife and pruner, and you may also need a small ax and a brush.
Coloring trees (photo you can see in the article) is performed as follows. The graft and rootstock are attached to each other using strapping material. It is very convenient for this purpose to use a bast of linden. It is cut in advance into 40 cm ribbons and moistened. You can also use packaging linen twine. An ordinary polyethylene strapping is also suitable. It is cut into ribbons 30 cm long and 1.5 cm wide.
When tying with twine and bast, you need a garden var, which will additionally protect the cut. It is made on the basis of rosin. There are different putty recipes that turn out to be liquid, thick or solid. The liquid is used immediately, the thick one needs to be heated first, the solid one is preliminarily kneaded.
- In liquid mixtures, rosin is mixed with alcohol and vegetable oil. Var is applied with a brush.
- In the thick - with wax, drying oil and fat.
- The solid mixture includes resin, wax and mutton fat. It is applied simply by hand.
Instead of var, plasticine is sometimes used.
Varieties of colorings and techniques for their implementation
All methods of grafting can be divided into two groups: grafting with a cuttings and colling of trees with a kidney (budding). Only two methods of budding are most common, and the possibilities for working with cuttings are much greater.
- When budding, a kidney with a small layer of the shield (bark and wood) is placed in a T-shaped incision made on a stock. This method is called "over the bark." The optimal length of the flap is 2.5-3 cm. The kidney is separated from the handle by a sharp blade, inserted into the "pocket" on the stock, pressed tightly. The place is tied at the top and bottom.
- The butt application is performed as follows - an incision is made on the rootstock to form a strip of bark, the length of which is about 3 cm. Most of this strip is cut off, there remains a “tongue” of 1 cm. A kidney is inserted behind it.
The method of copulation with a cuttings is convenient when the scion and stock are similar in thickness. They make long oblique sections at an angle of about 30 ° and connect them. Then the connected area is carefully bandaged and coated with var.