Budding is the grafting of a plant with buds. Budding is used mainly for propagating trees and shrubs, but in the same way you can rejuvenate an old plant or grow several varieties on one trunk at once. In this process you need to know the subtleties so as not to harm either the cutting or the adult tree. Therefore, let's look at common mistakes.
Dry soil
In order for budding to be successful, active sap flow processes must take place in the tree. This problem is especially relevant for summer grafting of plants, when the weather is hot and, accordingly, the soil under the tree is dry. With a lack of moisture, sap flow weakens. Therefore, to avoid such a problem, the plant needs to be watered abundantly 2 weeks and 1 week before grafting.
Compression of blood vessels
In order to make the correct cut on the recipient tree, you need a thin, sharp knife. If the knife is dull, the plant’s vessels will not be cut, but will be compressed, so the donor bud will take a long time to take root.
To properly sharpen a knife, take a fine-grained block and then smooth it with a piece of leather or a belt. An ideally sharpened knife is one that can easily cut a sheet of paper without creasing it.
Slowness
Before starting budding on fruit trees, it is better for a novice gardener to practice on non-valuable plants (willow, aspen, poplar).This is because for proper grafting all movements must be fast and precise. If more than 40 seconds are spent on cutting the cuttings, grafting and wrapping, then such a branch will not take root. After just 0.5 minutes, the cut begins to weather and oxidize, which means that the bud vessels become clogged and the plant juices will not reach it.
Shallow shield
Another common mistake is not cutting the shield deep enough. If, when cutting the shield, the vascular-fibrous bundle is not cut, then the juice will not flow to the kidney, and it will die.
Wrong harness
After grafting the cutting, it is tightly wound to the main branch. But both very tight and weak windings are fraught with the death of the kidney. If the cutting is wound very tightly, it will still begin to take root, but after 10–15 days the winding must be removed and rewound looser. But if the binding is weak, then common connective tissue will not form between the bud and the trunk, that is, the cutting will dry out.
Budding is an almost magical process, but for the magic to work, you need to avoid making technological mistakes.
