I removed a cherry tree and had a lot of roots that were fairly intact. I love the rootstock (Gisela, and patent is expired). Is it possible to graft straight to a root cutting?
I assume the answer is no, or we would have heard more about this. But I wasn’t sure I understood either way. Thanks.
I have done it successfully 4 out of 4 times
If you have dormant scions and you match the size, I would expect a whip & tongue would be successful. If you cannot match this size try a modified cleft graft. In roots are still healthy in ground, some may be able to grow new sucker type shoots which would be easier to graft next spring.
I’m giving it a try this year with some Dolgo crabapple rootstock that I had to trim to make fit in the 3 gallon grow bags I use. I couldn’t just throw these roots away. 
I used a cleft graft.
That is actually a very common thing to do, nurseries do that, fruit tree collectors do that, and so on. The only reason that some of us don’t do that is putting more than one cultivator on means more cultivators in a smaller area and less plants to water and to care for versus one tree per cultivator.
