At the Maxwell Community Garden we were excited to welcome Neil from Buglife and Social Juice who has a wealth of experience with fruit trees.
Most fruit trees are grafted onto a rootstock. What this means is that the roots are different to the variety that you want to grow. So the top of the tree will be an eating apple variety for example. The rootstock confers certain traits like ultimate height and vigour and can help the trees to bear fruit at a younger age. The rootstock and the top (the scion) are grafted together. This is a tricky process which takes a while to learn. You have to cut the rootstock stem and the scion stem and match them up together. Then the 2 ends will join together over a few months and a new tree will be created.
Neil showed us the process and made it look super easy but mainly because he has done 100's of grafts. As beginners it takes a bit of practice and careful use of a grafting knife!
Hope you enjoy the photos! You can read more about grafting on the Orchard Project website and watch their video.
