1. On top of a selected he althy tree, cut this year's woody stem roughly the thickness of a pencil. The best time for budding is between July and August. To keep the shoot fresh as long as possible, you should start work in the morning.
2. Remove the leaves from the scion obtained with a secateurs, leaving parts of the petioles about 1 cm long.A short fragment of the petiole will make it easier to set the eye (bud) later.Contrary to application grafting, which is commonly performed in winter, we do not need one graft for each rootstock for budding.Here we can get many stitches from one shoot.
3. For grafting, we use a rootstock planted in spring.
4. Clean the pad carefully with a soft cloth.
5. Using a knife with a budding machine, cut the shoot approx. 1 cm below the bud and make a straight flat cut upwards.
6. From the inside of the flat strip of shoot, carefully cut a part of the wood.
7. The eyelet on the inside is visible as a small dot at the bottom. To avoid damage, do not touch it with your fingers.
8. Make a T-shaped cut on the pad.First cut the bark crosswise, 2-3 cm long.
9. Then cut it vertically along the shoot to the length of approx. 3-4 cm.
10.Carefully bend the bark to the sides with the pointed tip of the bud.The skin will easily detach from the wood if you water the rootstock the previous day.
11. Insert the previously prepared eyelet into the gap between the bark wings.To keep it firmly in the pocket, you can slightly move it downwards with a knife.
12. Cut the protruding tab of the bark at the level of the transverse incision on the rootstock.
13. Finally, wrap the vaccination site with a bandage to protect it from drying out and excessive moisture.It can be raffia, garden foil, special patches or rubber tape.
14. Vaccination is ready. If the casing does not get stale, remove it in the spring.
15. A young shoot, growing out of the inoculated eye in spring, proves that the summer vaccination was successful. In order for the plant to devote all its strength to the development of new shoots, cut the rootstock just above the grafting site. In addition, we must regularly remove wild shoots, growing at the root of the rootstock or higher.
16. In the summer, i.e. one year after vaccination, the tree is quite impressive. Low-emergence side shoots can be gently cut right next to the trunk.
17. The guide of the apple tree should be attached to a bamboo pole with a plastic string so that the trunk is stable and grows vertically.Young tree in the following years can be freely shaped by properly pruning the guide and side shoots.
