Budding
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HOW TO RAISE A FRUIT TREE
If, instead of an apple tree, you were raising a plum or a peach tree, a
form of propagation known as _budding_ would be better than grafting.
Occasionally budding is also employed for apples, pears, cherries,
oranges, and lemons. Budding is done in the following manner. A single
bud is cut from the scion and is then inserted under the bark of a
one-year-old peach seedling, so that the cambium of the bud and stock
may
row together.
Cut scions of the kind of fruit tree you desire from a one-year-old twig
of the same variety. Wrap them in a clean, moist cloth until you are
ready to use them. Just before using cut the bud from the scion, as
shown in Fig. 69. This bud is now ready to be inserted on the north side
of the stock, just two or three inches above the ground. The north side
is selected to avoid the sun. Now, as shown at _a_ in Fig. 70, make a
cross and an up-and-down incision, or cut, on the stock; pull the bark
back carefully, as shown in _B_; insert the bud _C_, as shown in _D_;
then fold the bark back and wrap with yarn or raffia, as shown in _E_.
As soon as the bud and branches have united, remove the wrapping to
prevent its cutting the bark and cut the tree back close to the bud, as
in Fig. 71, so as to force nourishment into the inserted bud.
Sloping line shows where to cut tree]
Budding is done in the field without disturbing the tree as it stands in
the ground. The best time to do budding is during the summer or fall
months, when the bark is loose enough to allow the buds to be easily
inserted.
Trees may be budded or grafted on one another only when they are nearly
related. Thus the apple, crab-apple, hawthorn, and quince are all
related closely enough to graft or bud on one another; the pear grows on
some hawthorns, but not well on an apple; some chestnuts will unite with
some kinds of oaks.
Lines show where to trim]
By using any of these methods you can succeed in getting with certainty
the kind of tree that you desire.