In a few weeks we will be able to start grafting fruit trees.This is a special type of vaccination that we perform at the end of winter or at the beginning of spring.The date of this procedure is in this case extremely important, because this vaccination is performed during the plant dormancy, i.e. before the sap begins to circulate in the plants.
To perform the vaccination procedure, we must first of all have material on which we will inoculate a noble variety. It can be a wild rootstock or a tree of little value already growing in the garden. Equally important is access to a good variety that we want to plant.
It is from it that we will get one-year-old shoots, which will be used as slips for grafting.From other important materials, we need to obtain a garden knife (a strainer or an eyedropper) and an orchard ointment, which will accelerate the healing of wounds.
Spring vaccination is performed in various ways. However, at home, it is easiest to make them on trees already growing in the garden. It is especially useful when we have a tree that we are not happy with. The recommended method is "bark vaccination".To do this, cut a trunk or a selected tree branch with a ball. Starting from the point of cutting off the branch, make a perpendicular incision of several centimeters in the bark.
After parting the edges of the incision, insert a diagonally cut piece of a one-year-old shoot of the noble variety.Then spread the whole with orchard ointment and wait until spring for the connected elements to start to heal.So that the placed scion does not fall off, the whole thing can be tightly tied with a string.
