Time to learn to graft fruit trees.

Happy first day of spring.

Time to get started Grafting Scions on to rootstock and other early spring jobs. If you haven’t done this here is a handy guide to the basics.

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Grafting is fairly easy to do, but you will get better with practice. o no be afraid to make a mistake. You are playing the long game, here. Gather Scions (cuttings from the tree you want to propagate) and choose rootstock (the tree you are going to graft on to).

Keep the scions in a cool place until you are ready to graft - a bucket with a bit of water. Get your tools ready. Special Grafting tools are available, but you can use a clean knife and clear tape or wax to do the job. The point i s to try it.

Talk to your friends and neighbors. trade scions with them if the have a tree with good fruit. Graft to like trees. for example, graft any apple onto any other apple, but grafting a cherry onto an apple will not work.

Make this first day a spring a day to learn something new or improve a skill. Even if it is not grafting fruit trees. Plant a seed, read a book on a new subject, talk to a neighbor you don’t know well. Choose the way of Spring - build and improve.

Graphics from “The Simon and Schuster Step-by-Step Encyclopedia of Practical Gardening” available for free download at sciarium an educational resource.