This may be a dumb question, but I'm trying to understand how the seedling is oriented when performing a root graft. Specifically, are we using the bottom portion of the seedling's trunk to serve as the exposed nebari?
Root Grafting - Question
- Thread starter dbonsaiw
- Start date
misfit11
Omono
Yes. Essentially that's what you're doing. The base of the seedling is what becomes that portion of the trees nebari. You cut off the upper portion after you know it has fused.
Here are a couple thread root grafts I did on my Trident Maple a couple weeks ago.
Here are a couple thread root grafts I did on my Trident Maple a couple weeks ago.
Awesome. Thanks.
Shibui
Imperial Masterpiece
I don't think it matters whether you have some seeding trunk below the graft. I often pull the seedlings further through the hole so roots start dividing right from the graft. The graft should still work whether you have trunk or roots in the hole, provided the roots are in the soil and the upper parts above ground.
Trunk can become part of nebari just as roots exposed to air develop bark and become part of 'trunk'. Try to think of branches, trunk and roots as a continuum rather than discrete separate entities.
Trunk can become part of nebari just as roots exposed to air develop bark and become part of 'trunk'. Try to think of branches, trunk and roots as a continuum rather than discrete separate entities.
Any issue doing root grafts in the same season as a repot?
Also, I was planning on adding some root grafts to an arakawa. I have plain vanilla JM seedlings available. Can I use those or do I need arakawa specifically? I assume regular JM would be fine, but want to be 100%
Also, I was planning on adding some root grafts to an arakawa. I have plain vanilla JM seedlings available. Can I use those or do I need arakawa specifically? I assume regular JM would be fine, but want to be 100%
You are essentially dealing with separate trees until they fuse so I wouldn't think the repot would affect the root graft.
Sorry I don't have experience with JM but I would think as long as the bark color matches you could get away with using a standard JM seedling roots to a JM cultivar. That's what they do with grafted trees all the time.
Shibui
Imperial Masterpiece
Japanese maples is Japanese maple no matter what cultivar so they can all graft together.
The only issue I have seen is different colour/texture of the bark above and below the graft. Sometimes that stands out but where you are grafting extra roots it probably won't show up.
JM are strong growers and recover from repot and root pruning within a few weeks so should have no problem grafting and repotting. I've usually grafted roots on while repotting because it is easier to do with the tree out of the pot and roots exposed. No problem doing it that way.
The problem with using standard A.p. to graft roots on an Arakawa is that the exposed portion of the roots will never match the bark of the tree... This may not be an issue if the parent tree is grafted but if it is on its own roots grafting standard roots is big problem in my eyes...
