While in Thailand I purchased a “Taiwan long berry” mulberry and was intrigued by the grafting technique. It appears that a root-stock is spliced into the cutting to provide nourishment until the cutting can develop its own roots…Anybody know the name of this technique?
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looks like inarching. A way of rejuvenating old airlayers using seedling rootstock
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I think that’s an approach graft- never tried it but thought about it.
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It might be a root graft/airlayer combo. Saw this a while ago about the technique being used in Thailand on mangos. This is from Thaifigs facebook page
Sometimes a tree may seem too big or difficult to air layer. But by using a combination of root grafting and air layering, any size tree or branch can be sucessfully air layered.
These photos are from a friend’s Thai language FB page who gave me permission to repost with English text. I am grateful to be able to share them with everyone here. The trees shown here are Mango trees, but it will work for any variety of tree that can be grafted. For those who can read Thai, the original pictures can be found on สมชาย กลิ่นมะพร้าว | Facebook. Please go have a look, he has lots of great info there!
I will caption each photo after they have been uploaded. Please feel free to share this post if you find it interesting.
Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/thaifigs/photos/pcb.753957204715655/753956568049052/?type=3&theater
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Thanks guys! It looks like you are both correct…When I googled inarch graft it also called it “approach” grafting (although it isn’t what comes to my mind when I hear the term “approach” grafting). Looks like a novel and interesting technique to get a difficult cutting to root.
Wow! Those photos are amazing! It just doesn’t get any better than that! While in Thailand, I found the Thais to be incredibly industrious and hard-working…Those pictures are proof.
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there’s so much fruity stuff one can work on in the tropics! Folks aren’t just industrious and hard-working, but quite certain also very happy with their ‘high batting averages’ when it comes to grafting and airlayering due to the conducive weather/humidity.
And many areas have year-round growing/fruiting seasons(bananas/ pineapples/vegies, etc.) whereas many of us who live in temperate climates only have half a year to grow our fruits, which means a 35 year old thailander already has enjoyed fruit/vegie-growing experience equivalent to that of a 70 yr old fruit farmer in many regions of usa outside of hawaii and southern florida… Plus a much wider fruit and vegie vocabulary considering the incredible tropical diversity…
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In Northern California, I have fresh fruits year round. My 101-n-1 citrus tree bears fruits year round. We have a new residence, no more 101-n-1 citrus tree in my yard, but still with more than 12 citrus trees, I have fresh fruits year round from the citruses alone.
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The Parent Washington Navel was saved using multiple rootstocks via inarching. You see it now as fused together as one trunk.
At 144 years old today, it remains very very productive! I posted my theory about why multiple rootstocks can enhance production and also more adaptable to different soils. I posted it about a decade ago, by joining two complementary theories on interspecies and sibling root competitions. No one in the Horticultural department followed up to prove or disprove the combined theories and it would be a good master’s thesis or long term project.
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most certainly, many areas in cali permit year round fruit-growing. Citrus and certain guavas am sure!
seed-grown rootstoc most certainly rejuvenates. I, too, have noticed differences(both subtle and obvious) between vigor of citrus airlayers vs grafts on young rootstock.
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there’s also more to just using seed grown rootstock. When growing plants close together, if plants are siblings, they tend to cooperate and help each other out, if not, they tend to fight very fiercely for resources against each other.
And this has very important implications if genetically diverse rootstocks are grafted to one supplier trunk and thus I have laid out the fundamentals of my old hypothesis on multiple root cultivars.
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selective sibling symbiosis sure sounds scintillating!
and few families can match the fraternal relations among citrus, since many seedlings are geneticallly identical to mother plant, and of course, to one another. As @Livinginawe would say – ‘apomictic’ propagation.
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