Overheard a guy at the lumberyard talking about grafting oak trees

I was grabbing supplies for a pruning job yesterday and this older guy was telling his buddy about grafting a branch from a mature white oak onto a young sapling he planted 4 years ago. Said the sapling is now producing acorns way earlier than expected, like 2-3 years ahead of schedule. Never really thought about grafting oaks for acorn production, always figured it was more for fruit trees or ornamentals. He mentioned using a simple whip graft and sealing it with regular pruning sealer. Got me wondering if that could help speed up growth on some stubborn oaks I've been trying to establish along a new development. Has anyone here tried grafting for more than just ornamental reasons?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah3852d ago

Right, but if that whip graft takes and the scion pushes growth, doesn't the rootstock's own growth get stunted? I've seen that with fruit trees, the rootstock basically becomes a nutrient pipe for whatever you grafted on, and the original tree's own growth stalls out. Seems like you'd end up with a sapling that's mostly just the grafted branch and nothing else for a few years. Did he mention what happened to the rest of the young tree's trunk and branches, or did he cut it all back too?

the_sam1d ago

Thought about it the same way until I tried this exact method last spring, @hannah385. I cut the whole young maple back to a single whip and grafted a red sunset scion onto it. The rootstock's own buds below the graft? I rubbed them off every week. By late summer the graft was 4 feet tall and the original trunk didn't put out a single leaf. The tree is basically just the scion now on a rootstock pipe. He must have done the same thing.