Lon Rombough knows horticulture well from a lifetime of personal study in the field. Considered one of North America’s foremost authorities on viticulture, and author of the book: The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture, Rombough takes us through his steps for grafting cuttings from fruit trees (scions) onto established trees.

Rombough explains the advantages of grafting:

1. By grafting to a host tree, their roots may allow the (grafted) fruit tree to grow on soils, and other weather conditions that otherwise would prevent the fruit tree from successfully maturing.

2. The roots of a tree control their eventual size, dwarf fruit trees are created by grafting to the roots of miniature trees.

3. The root stock can vary the characteristics of what’s grafted on top of it too. How much fruit is produced in a year, the size of the fruit, sometimes varying slightly when the fruit ripens.

4. Grafting can be used for recreation or repair. A tree that has lost a limb (if it’s not too massive) can be replaced by using a graft. A bridge graft can be used to repair a tree trunck damaged by mice and rodents, by placing the graft between two areas that remain intact, the tree can keep growing across the damaged spot on the trunk.

5. Propagation: By using a graft from an existing tree, it’s possible to grow an exact replica of that tree that otherwise may not be possible to do.