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This week, a photo essay of a Stewartia root graft in a recent winter Seasonal class. These winter classes are focused on repotting, and a great time for root grafts.
A couple prospective Stewartia seedlings for the root grafts.
One site excavated to accept a root graft scion. This area could have better surface roots.
A second area that needs nebari roots.
Chiseling out the groove to accept a seedling’s lower trunk.
Testing the graft’s position and depth. The scion should be flush with the stock’s trunk.
After setting a nail with a rubber bumper on it, but before filling in with fine soil and topping with sphagnum moss. The root graft is a type of approach graft. Unlike an approach graft where the object is to create a branch, for the root graft the top of the shoot is cut off in a year or two leaving the roots. Otherwise the technique is the same. The groove is cut so the scion fits snugly, it’s pinned in place so it can’t just pop out as it grows, and then once it begins to fuse—often a year or more later—a wire tourniquet is put on the unwanted part. After six months, the root (or the shoot) is cut off and the graft is off and running.