North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bruce Hansen" <brucedhansen@sbcglobal.net>]

Let me think. All apples are grafted. All apple root stock, of any quantity, is sent alive and bare root. All scions, when properly cared for are alive. A Rox is created by grafting the live scion on a live rootstock. This can be done on the bench in the nursery, top grafting in the field, or live bud grafting in the field. What is 1920 about this? When you buy a tree from a nursery it can be sent to you bare root and alive. Plant it and give it proper care and it will leaf out. It remains alive. What are you advocating? If you want an article written in Pomona, why not write it yourself!

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Charles Paradise
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 7:57 AM
To: breen@fedcoseeds.com; North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] avoid bench grafting

I have recently been looking at the technique of grafting the scion onto an upside down oriented rootstock as a way of encouraging self rooting. Does anyone have any info on the success of such a technique? I think it goes by another name, but I will use inverted seedling nurse graft as a starting place.

Heron Breen

My reaction is, that this amounts to bench grafting, and bench grafting is a pratice to avoid.  It violates requirement #1 of grafting - to practice on healthy material.  By definition, when you dig a root completely out of the ground, you have just made it instantly unhealthy.  Isn't it interesting that we call roots and scions "material"?  As if a bolt of cloth or a bar of steel to be cut and finished...however these plants are living things...not raw material in a mill.  Maybe I'm not a quick learner, but when I stray and start regarding plants as material to be manipulated lots of dead plants is the result that reminds what they are really - sensitive living things.  If you're down in Massachusetts sometime stop by and I'll show you some little apples I bench-grafted and are dead sticks now...

Can someone print a warning in Pomona warning members to avoid bench grafting?  It's so 1920's...

Charlie Paradise