Why learn to graft fruit trees? Because it can save you a lot of money—that’s my favorite reason. My second-favorite reason is the immensely satisfying “Look what I did!” factor.
Michael Janik—the “Apple Guru” of Reno, Nevada—taught me to graft my first trees using the whip-and-tongue technique. In the class, I spliced 2-inch twigs onto tiny rootstocks. These trees, less than 12 inches long, would be 6 feet tall within two years.
I later interviewed Michael, and he showed me his amazing tree, a ‘Black Twig’ apple cultivar grafted onto dwarfing rootstock; the mature tree reached no higher than 9 feet. As the tree grew, he grafted more scions onto the branches, marking the cultivars with gleaming aluminum tags. The tree held more than 100 grafts, producing multiple types of apples, including ‘Honeycrisp,’ ‘Golden Delicious,’ ‘Prairie Spy,’ and more. It sat beside his urban house, producing all these cultivars in a tiny space, embodying the abundance made possible through grafting.
Can I Plant Apple Seeds?
If you plant apple seeds, they’ll likely not grow to be what you expected. Apple seeds
