Bud grafting

Selecting a bud of a plant as the scion and grafting it onto a stock is called bud grafting.

It is done as follows:

Cut and separate a live bud with the help of a grafting knife. (Buds are situated on the stem of a plant, above the leaf scar.)
Then make a cut in the stock and insert the bud into the cut.
Wrap that place with polythene strips, from below upwards.
A few days later, at the stage when the bud is growing green, loosen that wrapping and wrap again leaving the bud outside.
About three weeks later, if the bud has grown well, cut away the stem of the stock about 15 cm above the grafted place. (The new bud then grows well.)

Figure to be added

Figure 14.3 — the steps of bud grafting: the bud cut from its stem, the cut made in the stock, the bud inserted, and the place bound with polythene.

Bud grafting is named according to the shape of the cut made in the stem of the stock.

Examples — T graft, H graft, V graft.

Why the stock is beheaded last

Cutting the stock's stem away is what forces everything the roots send up into the one grafted bud. Do it too early and the bud is not yet established enough to use it; that is why it waits three weeks, until the bud has visibly taken.