-----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 graftingI 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.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...Heron Breen
Can someone print a warning in Pomona warning members to avoid bench grafting? It's so 1920's...
Charlie Paradise
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