- 1). Choose a strong sturdy tree for your rootstock. Your concern is not the fruit but, instead, roots that will do well in your soil.
- 2). Remove the bud from the tree you want to clone by slicing under the bud carefully, removing, at the same time, a 1-inch strip of the wood that is growing under the bud. The best time of the season to do this is when the bud has just appeared and is starting to swell. Use a bud from a previous season branch that has already started to harden. Do not use buds from the current season's growth.
- 3). Make the receiving cut in your rootstock. This cut should be in the shape of an upside down T, about 6 to 8 inches above the ground level, and large enough to hold the wood that is attached to your bud.
- 4). Prepare the receiving rootstock by lifting the bark into two flaps. Insert, under the flaps, the piece of bark that you left attached to the bud.
- 5). Fold the flaps back down over the bud wood. Wrap the graft with budding tape. The tape should be wrapped several times around the cut above the bud and the same below the bud. Do not wrap over the bud.
- 6). Cut the rootstock to prevent it from competing with your new graft. Make the cut approximately 1 1/2 inches above the graft, on the same side of the tree as the graft, about two-thirds of the way through. Bend the rootstock at the cut, all of the way to the ground.
- 7). Remove the budding wrap four weeks after you have grafted the bud. If the bud is healthy and growing, the graft has been successful. Cut off the bent-over rootstock. Cut off any branches growing out of the rootstock.
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