Here at Frostproof Growers Supply, we have some specialties when it comes to garden hand tools and supplies. While we can certainly provide our customers with the basics like rakes and saws, some of our best selection comes in the form of grafting and budding supplies. Long ago we wrote a couple of blogs about the reasons you might want to trim a tree. And we’ve also writing blogs about how to graft. So, put those two together and you have today’s blog: reasons you might want to graft a tree.

Sterile Plants Have No Other Choice

As we discussed in this article, navel oranges are sterile. While this aspect makes them popular due to their lack of seeds, it also means that the only way for them to continue existing as a fruit is to be grafted onto other trees. Without proper grafting, navel oranges would be extinct in a single generation of trees.

The Rootstock Might Be More Resilient

Sometimes the rootstock simply has qualities that the scion doesn’t. Perhaps you need it to be extra strong in order to bear the load of the fruit, or you require resilience to a particular kind of soil-borne disease. Grafting in this case allows an orchard grower to get the best of both words.

The Rootstock Might Fit Your Size Requirements

Some trees need to grow taller than others before they will bear fruit. While this is perfectly fine in nature, it’s not such a great trait when harvest time comes around. By grafting scions onto shorter trees, harvest times are cut and more pieces of fruit can be gathered. This can also protect trees and fruit in high-wind areas.

Have a Tree Pollinate Itself

It’s common in the plant kingdom for a plant to need a separate plant in order to become pollinated. This isn’t usually a problem in nature, as plants growing near each other will be pollinated by bees or by the wind.

But because of fruit tree mail order catalogs and websites, a person could plant the only tree of its kind within 25 miles, meaning that it’s unlikely that the tree is going to be pollinated by bees or the wind. In this case, a graft from a gender- or genetically-different or tree can be used to pollinate the rootstock in order to ensure fruit production. The bees will have a lot less far to go!

Create A New Type of Tree

To anyone who doesn’t understand the idea grafting, fruit cocktail trees must seem like an impossible wonder. But thanks to the proper grafting, a trees can have fruit from multiple types of fruit (though the variety is most often three different types of fruit). So instead of having an apple tree, you can have an apple, pear, plums, and even citrus fruits on one tree. These trees are a great way for people to enjoy a variety of fruits even if they only have a limited amount of space.

Repair Damaged Plants

Steve Jobs once lamented that, despite his vast wealth, he couldn’t buy a full-grown tree. Tree transplant machinery can only handle trees so large before they simply can’t do the job or threaten the health of the tree.

So when a tree is severely damaged, such as a large tree in someone’s front yard, people are interested in doing whatever they can to save it. Grafting smaller branches from another tree can help the surviving tree fill out faster and in the desired direction.

Grafting can do so much for the world, and in order to do so the proper grafting equipment is needed. Luckily, Frostproof Growers Supply is ready with the absolute best in grafting knives, tape, and wax so that you can get the most out of your rootstock.