The Biology of Grafting

History:
16-17th century: grafting widely used in England
 The Biology of Grafting
History:
1800’s: grafting used in the U.S.
 The Biology of Grafting
• Terminology
– Grafting - Art of connecting two pieces of
living plant tissue together so that they will
unite, grow and develop as a composite plant
 The Biology of Grafting
• Terminology
– Budding - a form of grafting. The scion = is
small and typically one bud
 The Biology of Grafting
• Terminology
– Budding - a form of grafting. The scion = is
small and typically one bud
 The Biology of Grafting
Terminology
Scion - short piece of detached shoot containing
several dormant buds. The upper portion of the
graft producing stems and branches
 The Biology of Grafting
• Rootstock (understock or stock) - lower
portion of the graft. Produces the root
system of the plant. Typically from
seedlings, rooted cuttings, layered or
micropropagated plants
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• Interstock (intermediate
stock, interstem) - a
piece of stem inserted by
means of two graft
unions between the
scion and the rootstock.
Often used to avoid
incompatibility, to
produce special forms,
control disease or
control growth
 The Biology of Grafting
• Vascular cambium - thin tissue located
between the bark (phloem) and wood
(xylem). Cells are meristematic and
therefore capable of dividing. Cambium
of scion must be in close contact wityh
cambium of rootstock
• Callus - mass of parenchyma cells.
Develop from wounded plant tissues.
Occurs at the graft union.
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• Rootstock-
– Types:
• Seedling
(+) simple, economical, mass produced, often free of
viruses, have better roots systems than cuttings
(-) genetic variation, juvenile and can delay flowering
and fruiting
• Clonal
(+) uniform, can have disease resistance, can cause
dwarfing
(-) can harbor diseases (systemic), micropropagated
shoots are juvenile and can delay flowering and
fruiting
 The Biology of Grafting
• Propagation and use of clonal rootstock

– Produced vegetatively by layering, rooted

cuttings or micropropagation

– An active area of research (esp. for nut trees

like pecan and pistachio)
 The Biology of Grafting
• Reasons for grafting/budding
– Perpetuating clones that cannot be readily
maintained or economically propagated by
cuttings, layers, divisions or other asexual
methods
– Obtain benefits of certain rootstocks
– Obtain benefits of certain interstocks
– Change cultivars of established plants
(“top-working”)
Topworking
 The Biology of Grafting
1. Speed up reproductive maturity and
induce earlier flower and fruit production
2. Increase plant growth rate and reduce
production time
3. Obtain special forms of plant growth
4. Repair damaged parts of trees
5. Study or eliminate viruses
6. Study plant development & physiological
processes
Mango maturity excelled
Camperdown elm
 The Biology of Grafting
• Perpetuating clones
– Because beech, eucalyptus, firs, oak and
spruce root very poorly from cuttings, clones
of these species are often maintained by
grafting
– Pinus elliottii (slash pine) and Pseudotsuga
menziesii (Douglas fir) are important to
forestry/timber production. To get superior
plants, you need to graft superior selections.
This can then develop into a seed “orchard”
stock-block with elite “germplasm”
Slash pine
 The Biology of Grafting

• Benefits of rootstocks
– Can tolerate unfavorable conditions (heavy,
wet soils)
– Can resist soil-borne insects, nematodes or
disease better than the scion’s roots could
– (ex: wine grapes in the U.S. are grafted onto
native muscadine grapes to prevent
problems from nematodes and phylloxera =
yellow aphid)
– Can produce larger size/better quality fruits
Phylloxera
 The Biology of Grafting
• Benefits of rootstocks (continued)
– Can speed scion into early maturity (early
fruiting) but must use dwarfing rootstock
(not seedlings or rooted cuttings)
– Asiatic (Japanese maples) form poor root
systems from cuttings and therefore must be
grafted
– Special rootstocks (resistant to Fusarium
and Verticillium wilts) for greenhouse
vegetable production in Europe/Asia and the
U.S.
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• Benefits of interstock (Double-working):
– Makes it possible to avoid certain kinds of
incompatibilities
– May possess a special characteristic (disease
resistance/cold-hardiness), not possessed by
either rootstock or scion
– Can reduce vegetative growth and increase
resproductive growth of the tree (ex: East
Malling 9 dwarfing)
 The Biology of Grafting

• Changing cultivars on established plants

(topworking)
– Change unproductive cultivars or those no
longer in demand
– Fix poor growth habit
– Change those susceptible to insects of disease
– In California, peaches, plums and nectarines
are generally changed every 2 - 3 years!
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• Hastening reproductive maturity of

seedlings
– Graft terminal shoots of seedlings onto
established tree rootstock
– Takes advantage of the large root system of
the rootstock and speeds up maturation of
juvenile scion
 The Biology of Grafting

• Hastening plant growth rate/reducing

nursery production time
– Some shade trees (like Acer platanoides
‘Crimson King’) can grow more quickly if
budded/grafted than if grown as a rooted
cutting (or sometimes even a seedling!)
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• Obtaining special forms of growth

– Ex: “tree” roses, fuschia, mum or ivy
standards, “weeping” cherries, “weeping”
birches, “weeping” elms, “weeping” black
gum!
– Generally you have an upright rootstock and
a “weeping” scion
– Also unusual cacti are grafted
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• Repairing damaged trees

– From winter injury, rodents, machinery,
disease
– Use a bridge graft or inarching
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• Study and Eliminate Viruses

– Graft “suspect” scion or bud onto a
susceptible “indicator” plant = indexing
– Prunus serrulata ‘Shirofugen’ is an indicator
plant for viruses in peach, plum, almond and
apricot
– Treat scion/bud with thermotherapy
– Micrograft shoot meristem onto seedling
rootstock to eliminate virus