Apples
Though most beginners will be able to propagate their soft fruits without much difficulty, there are definite problems which beset the man who sets out to produce his own apple, pear or plum trees.
First of all, he has to learn and master the technicalities of budding and grafting, besides which he has to learn the various ‘pedigree’ root stocks on which to ‘work’ the variety he wishes to reproduce. The stock may be described as the root part of the tree. It is a ‘wild type’ which normally would bear quite small apples, pears or plums if allowed to grow naturally.
Some varieties do not produce many runners, and in cases where no runners are produced propagation has to be done by the splitting up of three-year-old plants.
It is usual not to allow more than and if the runners do not flower by October they are transplanted then and they give excellent results the following season. October- planted runners crop two weeks before those planted in the spring.
Generally speaking, therefore, it is better to leave the raising of trees to the expert nurseryman, who can reproduce his stocks correctly by stooling or layering or other modern methods. But it is necessary to know the effect that the various classified stocks have on trees, so as to be able to place one’s order with the nurseryman correctly.
The operation of grafting is usually done towards the end of March or the beginning of April, for it is then that the sap is rising in the stocks. As the grafter must see that the exposed surfaces of the stock and the scion (the piece of one-year-old wood of a known variety) are perfectly smooth, it is necessary for him to have a sharp knife and a stone with which to keep the blade sharp. He will need, in addition, grafting tape or damp raffia for binding the graft to the stock; some grafting wax which he will either make up himself or buy in from the horticultural chemist ready for use.
