How to Graft Plum Rootstocks

Propagate plums with a technique known as T-budding.

Plum trees are popular landscape choices, known for the fruit they produce and their colorful, springtime blossoms. There are a number of plum cultivars that offer a variety of colors and other fruit characteristics, and most types require another cultivar nearby to provide cross-pollination.To ensure that a plum tree will have certain characteristics, a small portion of a parent tree with desirable traits is often grafted to an established rootstock. Plums are typically grafted in a budding technique known as T-budding, also referred to as shield budding.

Things You'll Need

• Pruning shears
• Moist peat moss or sawdust
• Plastic bag
• Grafting knife
• Grafting tape, budding rubber bands or other suitable wrap

Instructions

1. Cut and prepare budsticks from the desired parent tree. The budsticks should be pencil-sized or smaller twigs removed from the previous year's growth when the tree is dormant. Plan on using a central bud from the budstick and make sure that the buds are arranged singly, rather than clustered.

2. Store the budstick, if the grafting will not be performed immediately, in moist sawdust or peat moss inside a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator.

3. Cut the bud out of the budstick immediately before the grafting will be performed. Use an upward slicing motion with a sharp grafting knife, beginning about 1/2-inch below the bud and ending about the same distance above the bud. Remove only a small sliver of wood with the bud.

4. Make a 1-inch-long vertical cut on the rootstock about 6 inches above the ground. The cut should be at a depth that allows the bark to separate at the cambium but not penetrate the wood. The cambium layer, located between the bark and the woody center, is responsible for the production of conductive tissue, as well as the callus tissue that must heal around the union.

5. Make a cut at the top of the vertical cut that is perpendicular to the first cut, effectively making a "T."

6. Peel the bark back from the rootstock gently by slipping the point of the grafting knife under the flaps to create a pocket. If this cannot be done easily, the stock is likely not actively growing or has bark that is "slipping", and the grafting will not be successful.

7. Insert the bud into the pocket on the rootstock. Strip off bark from the top of the bud, if necessary, to ensure that the budwood fits tightly against the horizontal top cut on the rootstock.

8. Wrap the bark flap over and against the bud tightly with grafting tape, budding rubber or another suitable wrapping material that can keep air and moisture out of the union while preventing dessication.

9. Remove the wrap, if it does not break down on its own, about two to three weeks after the grafting is performed and the union has healed well enough that the bud is beginning to grow.

10. Cut off the upper portion of the rootstock once the union has healed or during the following dormant season. Remove any suckers that appear from the rootstock at the base of the plant.

References

• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: T or Shield Budding
• Alabama Cooperative Extension System: Budding and Grafting Fruits and Nuts
• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Plum
• University of Minnesota Extension: Grafting and Budding Fruit Trees -- Methods of Grafting