(whimsical Persian music)
I know next to nothing about grafting but I've always wanted to learn and my
new friend Mehrdad is a self-taught expert if you call it so He's going to
take us through a test to test graft and show us the basics so stay tuned okay so
so why do people graft? basically there are two reasons first of
all if you plant a seed it's going to take about four to five years sometimes
up to seven years to bear fruit and also that fruit is not going to be exactly
the same fruit that you desire to get secondly if you graft it you're going to
get exactly the same fruit and within next year because that branch used to
flower and used to bear fruit so you get fruit next year I planted those
tangerine seeds because the tangerines from my friend's tree was so delicious
but now you're saying I'm not going to know 90% 99% even I can say you're
not going to get that tangerine you were going to get a wild type of citrus the
tree of my friend was originally this root stock of that tree was from some
sour orange sour orange stronger it is a stronger root and it lasts longer it's
survived in different climates oh that is amazing and I knew when you go into the
nursery you see everything is has a different kind of base but I don't I
didn't know why yes yeah they are mostly grafted everything you buy from nursery
they are grafted okay by the way I'm going to mention that there are several
different methods of grafting there are you know grafting they call it
Saddleback okay there's the grafting they call it Chip Budding there is
another one which is Groove and Thong but the one I'm going to be doing today is
called Cleft, Cleft grafting - okay you were telling me that you for this
you have to have a really sharp knife definitely you do have, one of the key to
success is a sharp knife that's my first problem right there there's nothing
sharp in my house well you order specially and yeah sharp I am a
left-handed so I had to order a left-handed grafting knife these are
called graphing knife and they are totally different one side is not sharp
at all it's not been sharpened but the other side if you look at it it's
sharpened so one side is flat the other side is completely shaved off so
basically you're cutting the top yes and not disturbing what's underneath the
blade - yes yeah you're basically that the branch
you are grafting is consist of wood, cambium and bark okay so what you need
is the cambium that's the one that connects or graft to the other species
ah so those layers of cambian from both
both should match match together so they can start you know bounding and that the
new branch start getting you know nutrient from the root stock I wrote the
cambium through the cambium - oh that is so cool these are the equipments that I
use for my grafting basically I have a cutting scissor I have a saw I have the
grafting knife the sharpening stone the green tie tape and also this is a wax
tape for sealing and at the end I have a small bottle of alcohol to disinfect all
these tools because if they are contaminated the graft is not going to
take and either bacteria grow or mold or something so I make sure there's no
infection these are some of the projects that I'm doing starting from cutting or
from seeds to grow for next year next year they're going to be ready to be
grafted
and this is actually the plant I'm planning to graft today and this one is
already been grafted about a week ago and it's covered for protection to keep
the moisture in okay now I'm going to take it bring it up to that table it's
easier when it's upright I planted this seed two years ago this is an apricot
plant and this is the best and right time to graft this because the buds
are coming out these are the twigs that I prepared for grafting this is
coming from a tree that I love the fruits and it bears a lot of juicy
fruits so I prepared them and cut them in December and kept them in
refrigerator in a ziplock to keep the moisture Mehrdad did you do anything
special to those branches when you cut them off no nothing is special you just
cut them but you're going to make sure that the tree is dormant so basically at
end of the winter December when your root stock start you know budding
and branching then you can start grafting which we're going to do it
right now can you do this to any kind of a fruit tree absolutely as long as this
cyan which is these branches and the root stock are matching they can do it oh
they're the same family same family okay so you can't put like an apple on
this apricot tree no you can't but you can put on probably and most probably you can
add any kind of peach or different variety the same time okay and then when
it's on the branch you have that fruit on that branch and and then if if you
have another species you know you have two different species on one tree you
know you have for example you have here plum and you have apricot the first step
is to cut the root stock so I am going to cut it right from here
next step is to make it cut right in the middle of stem and you go about about an
inch you go down so I'm trying to go slowly because you don't want to go all the way
down so slowly slowly I'm cutting this one okay now I'm going to prepare
these twigs to be inserted in that cut the way I do it is very simple what you
do is you make sure on one side you leave enough bark as you see exactly see
the little bark is left underneath this cambium and then the wood and I'll make
sure to cut it to the size which the best size is this and I'm going to
insert this one right in one side and I make sure that the cambium is touching
now we prepare the second one all right then I'm going to insert this one also
at this side and I make sure that the side the skin of both side is matching
okay ah yes make sure exactly both are matching this one is a little bit off so
I'm going to move it out a little bit and now to make sure they stay in the
right place so I normally start from the bottom wrap it around as strong as
possible to make sure these are done properly and I make sure these are
perfectly aligned really tight as tight as you can to make sure there is no gap
between these two cambium and then I'm going to make a knot some people don't
they do it different knot but this is what I do and that's work for me now
what I'm going to do is I'm going to seal it with the wax tape and the best thing
to do this one quickly because you don't want to lose any moisture the whole
issue of the grafting is not just making sure that these are connected properly
but you're going to make sure that there is no moisture loss in your plant
(lively Persian music)
this time now I'm going to cover the entire face of the wood to make sure
that it's covered and no moisture is going to escape
We're done, the only thing I need to do is make sure this stay in the shade, no sun, and after about 10
to 15 days when the growth to start growing I'm going to take all these wax
and the wrapping tape off and it's going to be ready to go also to make sure that
you know there is not that much of sun even a little bit I'm going to cut these
corners by doing this the sun is not going to hit this plant and also there's
an air circulation Mehrdad has assured me that this tangerine tree I grew from
seed two years ago I planted it is not going to produce sweet beautiful fruit
so we're going to graft it but a different technique - Chip Budding
Okay what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove some part of this tree and then
replace it with part of the other one that I have so you're taking a wedge yes
a chip out of it if this graph takes place it's going to be perfect you're going to
have fruit
yeah I don't have too much of time we got to do it fast and quick okay because
you can't leave that one exposed for a long period of time so I got to make sure
this is almost the same a little bit under so I am going to cut the extra
piece - I think we matched it this time only seal it that's all I need to do we make
sure it's in the right place.
(lively Persian music)
I just want to make sure everywhere is covered and it is closed.
yeah we're done - the bad news is I gotta cut most of these branches and
give a chance for the bud to start growing and have more power and more
juice just concentrated to that little piece that we just grafted so I'm
going to go ahead and cut this one from here also I am going to take this one
out I am going to take this one out and the reason I'm just leaving little
branch here they call it "nursing branch" that branch is going to communicate with
the root and make sure that all the juice and nutrient is going to get to
this leaf but before they get here they're going to pass through this
little bud - as you see this is the tip of a bud right here at this spot and as
soon as this one is start growing give it a little bit of time it grows about
one or two inches then it's time to cut entire branch right above it so from
here up is going to be cut and this is going to be a new branch is going to be
moving up and the same year or the next year it's just going to you know flower
and bear fruit you're going to be watching this spot there it's going to
grow out and then it's going to go up it's not going to go like this
It's just going to grow the same as it was on that tree you'll see - if it works can I
bring my other one over absolutely absolutely as many as you want this is a
graft that didn't take place so as a result this is a callus okay so this is
what my tree will look like if it doesn't work yeah well thank you so much
this has been a real education my pleasure my pleasure
and if you have any questions that we didn't cover please leave a comment in
the section below and give me a thumbs up on the video and please share with
your friends thank you thank you
now we're going to have some tea some Persian tea yes yes yes definitely I'm
going to go from behind so if a mini fit state nothing if it is taken by any
chance I'm not going to be serviced
what do you think yeah it's not taken unfortunately it's moving the graft has
not taken Oh Actually I see some little insect in there oh that's not good yeah
I see that too yeah so basically what we need to do is just let this one grow and
maybe we can graft right here okay next year or you know maybe somewhere down
here but this is not taken okay see how black is this one oh it shouldn't be
black at all so something went wrong probably some
kind of mold or bacteria got in there it's still alive we can try again
yep the tree is alive and we can graft right here or a little bit lower or right
here too - there are two points that we can graft again
(lively Persian music)
well it is very healthy citrus plant and hopefully another time we can take care
of it