Fruitwise Apple Tree Grafting, the Saddle Graft

Thanks everyone, I had no idea how popular these videos would be when I put them up.
I plan to do a lot of grafting over the 2008/2009 winter and will put more vids up unless it gets into undue repetition.

Since this saddle graft vid has been the most popular, I will probably put more up to amplify the technique. Please let me know what other grafting issues you want covered. What I learned from books and experience, I'm glad to share on the great medium of youtube.

Hi Wax is not absolutely essential, depending on which method of grafting you use. With a saddle graft, the live edges of the wood (cambium) should be in contact, so all you need to do to exclude air is wrap them well with polythene tape. Other means of grafting I have shown do leave gaps which allow the live wood to dry out and it will not then bond cambium to cambium, so you need to fill in the gap with something. Vaseine (white soft paraffin) would probably do it, or modelling clay.

Love your videos ... very informative. Can we use something else instead of wax. I am having trouble find some in my area. Thanks.

I have seen people with 5 fruit trees. I'm confused how it works with 5 different types of trees like pears, apple, and a few others. I was planning on getting one. But will it work with 5 different types?

you can only graft the same species, apple to apple, grape to grape, plum to plum etc. Actually there is a bit of overlap, for example between quinces and pears, but there is no way you could graft apples and grapes, the biology is too different.

hi i have a question
can you graft two different species of fruit trees? like apples and grapes? or do they have to be in the same family?

Hi Robzter. I think my English accent may give you the impresion of my being scared, but hey, anyone who isn't scared these days is living in a dream world! But I'm usually pretty peaceful and relaxed at the orchard, all that green is good for you.

Apologies for the sniffing, I need to take frequent sharp intakes of breath to keep the narrative up and my nose is usually partly blocked with cold (this is England, you know), its been broken twice in fights when I was a kid.

Why you sound like your scared when you talk

thanks for the video!

posted it. I had no idea how much interest there would be in grafting apple trees, this video like my others is so imperfect but seems to meet a need. Thanks again for honouring my humble efforts by viewing and linking to it from far and wide. The more recent sadel grafting vid, just posted, proves that this technique works, like I said it would back in March.

Hi everyone, thanks for all the views. I am about to post a follow up video showing how well these graft have done by late July.

This sadle graft technique is my favourite, its easy if you do it carefully, good for either raising new trees on rootstocks or top working a tree over to a different variety.
kind regards, remember the biggest mistake is not to try.

Hi Badger 737.

Yes, you can graft several different varieties of apple on to one tree, this is done commmercially as 'family' trees where you have, usually, 3 different varieties. I've done this myself.

Getting scion wood could either be from a nursery or you could scrounge some from a friend or neighbour.

Hi, I have an oldish apple tree left over from an orchard which was built over in 1932. It produces "cooking" apples at the moment but I would like to graft on some eaters. First question, can a tree sustain different varieties ant the same time? If so, where would I be able to obtain some scion wood to graft on? Thanks in advance

Thank you for sharing! I found your knot very useful too. I had to slow down the video a bit to see exactly what you did at times though.

great video! Very interesting, of course I love the opinel! I have heard of this, but it was nice to see the process in a video like this, thanks for posting!