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Custom Benchgraft

Custom Bench Grafting Apple, Pear, Plum treescustom-bench-grafts.jpg

Bench grafting is where a piece of scionwood is grafted onto a rootstock to grow a new tree.   The scionwood dictates the variety of fruit.  The rootstock dictates the size, hardiness, vigor, and disease resistance of the tree.  Apple scions must be grafted onto apple rootstock, pear scions onto pear rootstock, and plum scions onto stone rootstock.

There are many different methods of bench grafting, but the whip and tongue is a good one with high success rates.   Basically, we whip and tongue graft a piece of scionwood that has 2-3 buds on it (usually 2-3 inches) onto a rootstock of your choice.  Before grafting onto the rootstock, it is cut down to 6 inches above the top root which usually ends up with a 12 inch rootstock.  The resulting benchgraft is roughly 14-15 inches long.

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