Bench grafting apples - how much rootstock do you leave above the roots & how deep to you bury the roots?

General Fruit Growing
21

I graft fairly high. Some I just want a nurse root to make them own root in time. Unless it is a disease resistant rootstock I paid extra for.

22

When I do an apple bench graft on bare root rootstock, I graft wherever I need to in order to match the width of the rootstock to the width of the scion. I almost always use W&T. I plant at the same depth at which they appeared to grow but a little deeper is probably ok.

I’m not an expert grafter. I’ve done one batch of 50 apples 4-5 years ago and another batch of 16 this year. I’ve had one failure, involving a very thin scion. This year I’m 16 for 16.

Bottom line – match the diameters then success is pretty much guaranteed.

23

I graft as high or low as the scion dictates. I try to match root stock and scion diameter where ever possible. This makes whip and tongue graft all that much easier.

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