Wednesday 26 March 2014

Grafting

Ok Dad......and roll.....well here I am in our propagation area. Today I am checking the grafting that we did earlier...and here's one we did earlier!
Grafting is a kind of surgery for trees. It means you can grow one tree by ataching it to another tree. In this case we have taken a small twig from a special tree that we want to grow more of. We stick this twig against the bark of another tree.
If we do this right, then the twig grows onto the other tree and the two become one tree. Then we can let it grow into a big tree.
It's a bit more technical than that, but that's the basic idea.
This graft has worked, because the twig is starting to grow a new stem and this is a good sign. This means the twig has joined to the other tree and water and nutrients can travel between the two parts.
Daddy is very clever isn't he. I couldn't do this because my paws aren't able to hold a sharp knife!