Today Brock will be showing us how to do a bark inlay graft on one of the young avocado trees we have here at Atitlan Organics.
We’ve got several young avocados growing here on the farm. This one is growing great, it’s healthy and about 8 feet tall. But we’ll have to wait another 6-7 years before it will make fruit, and even then it may give an unsatisfying harvest. With grafting, we can take part of another tree which we know produces nice fruit and graft it onto this established root system. The young avocado we are using as root stock will now be able to produce good quality fruit within a year or two.
Materials Needed:
-Grafting knife
-Teflon tape
-Pieces from our favorite avocado tree
-Handsaw
Begin by sawing off the top of the young avocado tree. Make as clean of a cut as possible so as not to damage the tissue. The most important layer of the tree when grafting is the cambium layer, which is found just beneath the bark and just outside of the wood. This is where lots of nutrients and sap flows through, and where you have to make contact for a successful graft.
For a bark inlay graft, make a slanted diagonal cut at the bottom of the scion wood. Then make a small cut on the root stock. The bark will open out, and you carefully place the scion into position. (If you have not watched the video above, we recommend checking it out to see how all this is done!) Using the teflon tape, bandage around the entire area to ensure a secure connection, and also the entire piece of scion wood to make sure that it does not dry out.
Though we will only leave one piece of scion graft, repeat the process two more times with other pieces of scion wood to make sure that one of the grafts will take. Wait about 3 weeks before removing the teflon tape and then select the scion that looks strongest and remove the other two.
It’s that easy!
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