Peach grafting - technique (video)

Every gardener wants to get a good harvest from the planted trees. However, not everyone decides to plant a tree, meanwhile this is the key to obtaining maximum fruiting. And even more so, only a few know how to plant a peach correctly in order to get large fruits with high taste. And the vaccination technique is not as complicated as it might seem the first time, and everyone can master it.

Harvesting cuttings

Training

Since it is better to plant a peach in spring, the cuttings should be harvested in the autumn or at the very beginning of winter, before the onset of frost below -7-12 C degrees. Select ripe cuttings from a healthy tree, at least 45-65 cm long. For budding, they are cut in the morning or evening, but not during the day. After removing the sheet plate, the stalk is placed in the lower part in a glass or plastic container with a small amount of water to preserve the turgurous state. If cuttings were purchased outside the region or site, they should be kept in a damp cloth, not drying out.

When preparing the cutting, it is worth keeping the leaf petiole up to 0.8-1.6 cm long, this is necessary for successful insertion of the shield with the bud behind the bark of the rootstock, and avoids touching the cut surface with fingers. Eyes or buds for budding are used only in the middle part, since other shoot buds are underdeveloped.

Storage

Cuttings are stored in several ways. Most often by snowing. They are tied in small bundles according to varieties, placed in dense plastic bags and covered with snow, that is, they snow when the thickness of the snow cover is at least 25-45 cm. In this case, the snow embankment should be 55-65 cm thick. From above, to save temperature, a snowdrift is mulched with a layer of peat or sawdust. A similar snow drill is made in the northern part of the site or house, delaying the melting of snow as long as possible. The optimum temperature for successful storage of cuttings is -3-5 C.

Some growers store cuttings in deep basements or lower compartments of the refrigerator. But in such cases, they should be examined regularly. Because the cuttings may develop mold or dry out. In such cases, the tip should be cut off by 1-2 cm and immersed in water for 12-16 hours to saturate with moisture. Immediately before budding, the cuttings are also immersed in water for a day. In addition, cuttings stored in the refrigerator may start to germinate ahead of schedule.

What is better to vaccinate

Good survival rate is observed when peaches are grafted onto apricots, plums, and wild seedlings. On the cherry plum, as shown by the data of numerous studies, they are not inoculated, since the components are not compatible with each other. The best varieties, with larger fruits, should be grafted directly under the skeletal branch, choosing a place as close to the trunk as possible.

Seedlings are prepared by themselves. At the beginning, the seeds are placed in a wet substrate since autumn, and in early spring, the hatched bones are planted in rows at a distance of 45-55 cm from each other. During the growing season, the soil is regularly loosened, excess plants and damaged seedlings are removed. In the fall, before the onset of the first frosts, the seedlings are dug up or covered, leaving until spring. After that, they are sorted, rejected thin and underdeveloped.

Rootstocks can also be grown without digging.In these cases, several seeds are sown, which have already hatched, at a distance of 20-25 cm and the seedlings are thinned, leaving only those that at the time of budding can reach the optimal thickness, not less than 7-10 mm in diameter.

Seedlings are planted in spring, deepening the root collar when planting 7-10 cm below soil level. Their aboveground part should be at least 25-35 cm in length. Immediately before grafting, the rootstock plants must be watered, this will allow the bark to peel off well from the wood. Before budding, the stock should be carefully exposed to the height of the root collar and thoroughly wipe the graft site with a damp cloth.

Vaccination methods

Peach grafting can be done in several ways. One of the most popular and affordable is the T-shaped crown budding. A T-shaped cut is made on the rootstock shoot with a grafting pruner or a sharp special knife. After that, the bark is carefully peeled off and inserted into the incision, prepared in advance and cut from the scion branch of the shield. In this way, the vaccination should be carried out in the morning when the air humidity is increased. During grafting during the day, there is a risk of oxidation of the peach tissue and the appearance of a characteristic brown-brown hue, which complicates and slows down the survival of the scutellum. By the fall, the bud, grafted correctly, takes root, but it will germinate only in the spring, and the first fruiting will begin on a developed shoot no earlier than 2-3 years.

Another common method of grafting a peach is by budding in the butt. It is carried out only on young three- or four-year trees. On each large branch or directly on the trunk of a young seedling, several shields made of scion are grafted into the butt, placing them at a distance of 6-9 cm from each other. The vaccination site is tightly tied with burlap or film. After 25-35 days, the film is removed and the branch above the grafted bud is cut off. At the same time, all unnecessary branches are also removed, having processed the cut points with garden pitch.

In early spring, you can also carry out the usual copulation of a peach, without a tongue. In this case, the cuts for the rootstock and cuttings should be the same length and width. When the stalk is precisely aligned with the stock, it is necessary to tightly tie the grafting site with film or thick paper. After that, the cutting is covered with a cloth or paper bag, until the first leaves appear. When the shoot reaches 28-35 cm, the harness can be removed. On such a cutting, with proper care, fruit buds can form by autumn.

Video "Peach grafting technique"

The video talks about how to plant a peach for a larger and more regular crop. How to prepare budding material, where it is better to store the prepared cuttings and prepare the stock.