Thursday, 22nd March 2018, 10:00 – 16:00 GMT
Village 135. Hollyhedge Road, Wythenshawe, Manchester. M22 4ZP
At our Hard Graft / Made Easy workshops you’ll learn to perfect the not-so-dark-art of fruit tree grafting. All while preserving lost, local and heritage varieties from some of the best kept orchards around Greater Manchester.
Paid for ticket holders will receive a grafting tool to keep as part of their ticket price as well as two of their own grafts to take home. These will be on MM106 rootstock* and you’ll be able to choose from a variety of scions**.
You’ll also have the opportunity to try knife grafting which can be a little more tricky but sometimes provides neater cuts and potentially more successful grafts.
GRAFTING TERMS EXPLAINED
Rootstocks:
These are bred for their vigour, they have funny names like M9, M25 and MM106, this all refers to their known potential from the final size of tree. An M9 would typically be used in a commercial orchard and grow to the size of about 2m or 7ft. Our preferred rootstocks for home and community orchard settings tend to me MM106, which are more versatile and grow to about 3-4m in height.
Scion:
This is cut from an existing fruit tree, usually when the tree is still dormant. So January is a good time to harvest scions. This carries the genetic material of the variety that you want to grow. So you might want A Cox Orange Pippin in your orchard, great! You need to start by finding a healthy, disease free Cox Orange Pippin tree, that has some new growth. This scion can be cut, trimmed to approx 6-7 buds in length. Cut ends can be wrapped in damp paper and then stored in a plastic bag. Preferably somewhere cold, the salad draw of a fridge is perfect for this.
Don’t be fooled if you tried planting your lovely Cox Orange Pippin pip you’d grow a varient or long distant cousin, it’d likelt taste horrible too. Such is the mystery and beauty of fruit tree grafting. That’s not to say it would definetly taste horrible. Most varities with ‘seedling’ or ‘pppin’ in their name likely grew from a pip. It’s a one in a million (or there abouts) that you might be sat on the next Jazz, Pink Lady or Granny Smith.
Grafting Tool:
For those paying for course you’ll receive a grafting tool to take away. That way you can have a go at home and perhaps try some bud or chip grafting during the summer. These will be explained on the day.
Grafting Knife:
A very sharp, small knife. You can use disposable craft or Stanley knives for grafting although we swear by a trusty Opinel No.6. You wont find a better grafting knife and should last years if kept sharp.
