155. Developing my own root-stocks . . .

Those of you following my blog will know that I have been trying a little grafting over the last couple of years, mainly apple and pear scions to my hawthorn hedge. Surprisingly with some success.

I wanted some root stocks to continue my grafting experiments, and came up with three solutions.

1. buy
2. grow from pips - but then there is no control over the size of the subsequent trees
3. make my  cloned rootstocks (the same as you would buy)

I already have an experiment  for solution '2' going (I have about a dozen saplings about 20 cm high).

The attached picture is my experiment for solution '3'. I was given an MM106 sapling (the severed sapling in the photo) and planted it in my new tree nursery. Then I made a coppicing saw cut (see stump in centre of sawdust).

I built the box around the stump and filled it with sawdust (normally covering the stump too). Hopefully, the roots will send up shoots through the sawdust, and after a year (or possibly two) the whole rootstock can be dug up, the new root / shoots separated (maybe a dzoen or so), and potted up.

The new root shoots will be MM106 rootstocks (clones of the original) and can be grafted onto, and the original rootstock can be re-planted and used again.

That's the (fascinating) theory, anyway.

Will keep you posted.

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