Hi, I have a [u]weeping[/u] Siberian Peashrub in my yard. I am moving at the end of this month, so I collected seeds from it in the fall. I now have seedlings growing indoors but have recently learned the seedlings most likely won't be of the "weeping" variety and that I need to "graft" the plant. I read somewhere that for grafting it's best to take a branch from the main tree during winter and then I went on to read, "blah,blah,blah!" Got totally lost on how to 'fuse' the seedling and the branch together. Could anyone explain in layman's terms???
What I use to do to start a new plant like a rubber tree or something with a hard branch is to cut the stem of a branch about 1/4 of the way through. I would take a little rooting hormone and rub it into the wound. Then I would rap it in damp spagnum moss. Then I would rap the spagnum in syranwrap. I would use twist ties on either end to hold it together. The other way I would do it. I use to take rosebushes and lay a branch down on the ground and cover it with soil I would hold down the branch with a rock or heavy wire like a large hair pin. Then I would wait for as long as you can ( a few months if necessary)before checking on roots...Sometimes I would start it in the spring and late summer I would cut it from the original plant. My mother had a wonderful pink trailing rose, that I just loved.... But could never find in nurseries... SO to this day. I have 5 rosebushes of that variety...
Grafting a plant is not an easy thing to do. I did it when I was in school - you really need a controlled environment.
To graft a weeper, you have to have rootstock of a non - weeper and a branch of a weeper. Then, with a grafting knife, you have to make cuts in the wood of the rootstock and the branch, just enough to expose the cambium of the wood. Then, you have to match up the cambium of the two pieces and rubber band them together tightly. Then, you need grafting wax, which has to be a certain temperature, and cover the graft with the wax until it heals. Ideally, it should be kept in a greenhouse. When you start to see new growth on the weeping branch, the graft has usually healed, but it can still fail - even about a year later.
There are all kinds of different grafting cuts that you might want to read up on.
Go to www,freeplants.com , Mike basically shows you step by step instructions on how to graft a weeping japanese maple to another plant. This is the time to do it too!
