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Friends of blockhill
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Seeds
Grafting
527c

Buy scion / bud wood for grafting

Order wood from a selection of fruit tree varieties growing in our North Canterbury forest garden

 

 

Summer bud wood

Orders will be cut and dispatched for prompt budding.

 

Winter - Sping scion wood

Wood is cut and graded in June for dispatch in July – August.

On receipt, scion wood will need to be stored refrigerated until the appropriate local grafting time.

 

Length: 150 – 170mm with 3 - 4 buds

Diameter: 5 – 12mm

Scion / bud wood available to order:

Apple - Boskoop scion / bud wood

Apple - Boskoop scion / bud wood

Details   Heritage variety introduced in the 1850s in the Netherlands. Large fruit suitable for cooking or eating fresh.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     apple  scion 
Learn More Only 2 in stock   Order
Apple - Braeburn scion / bud wood

Apple - Braeburn scion / bud wood

Details   The Braeburn apple is a popular and well-known variety of apple known for its unique flavour profile and attractive appearance. It is believed to have originated in New Zealand in the early 1950s as a chance seedling. Since then, it has gained popularity and is now grown in various apple-producing regions around the world.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     apple  scion 
Related info Only 4 in stock   Order
Apple - Freyberg scion / bud wood

Apple - Freyberg scion / bud wood

Details   A yellow green skin with some russeting. A juicy, aromatic apple with, creamy white flesh with a firm texture. Flavour is a combination of apple, pear and banana with a touch of anise and liquorice.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     apple  scion 
Related info Only 3 in stock   Order
Apple - Fuji scion / bud wood

Apple - Fuji scion / bud wood

Details   A large, sweet, crisp, fine textured, and complexly flavoured apple. This vigorous tree produces excellent eating fruit that store very well. A late season apple, Fuji has eating qualities that are similar to Red Delicious. Requires 500 chilling hours to set fruit. Tip bearing.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     apple  scion 
Related info Only 4 in stock   Order
Apple - Irish Peach scion / bud wood

Apple - Irish Peach scion / bud wood

Details   Irish Peach is a very early season apple. It has good natural resistance to many of the diseases that affect apple trees. For such an early apple, the flavour is good, although like all early varieties it really needs to be eaten straight from the tree.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     apple  scion 
Related info Only 2 in stock   Order
Apple - Royal Gala scion / bud wood

Apple - Royal Gala scion / bud wood

Details   The Royal Gala apple is a popular variety of apple known for its sweet and crisp flavour, making it a favourite among many apple enthusiasts. It is one of the most widely grown apple cultivars in the world.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     apple  scion 
Related info Only 4 in stock   Order
Hawthorn - Crataegus Pinnatifida scion / bud wood

Hawthorn - Crataegus Pinnatifida scion / bud wood

Botanical name   Crataegus pinnatifida
Rootstock   Hawthorn
Details   Chinese Haw (Crataegus pinnatifida) producing large dark red fruit and no thorns. Offering scions as people have struggled to grow this variety from seed. Graft onto wild hawthorn seedlings.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     hawthorn  scion 
Related info Only 4 in stock   Order
Nashi - Hosui scion / bud wood

Nashi - Hosui scion / bud wood

Details   Absolutely delicious to eat, Nashi Hosui pears are renowned for their sweetness, juiciness, and perfect balance of acidity. Their large, golden-brown fruits boast a distinctive russeted texture, and their fine consistency adds to their appeal. Additionally, Nashi Hosui trees are partially self-fertile, simplifying the pollination process for growers.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     fruit  graft  scion 
Harvest     February  
Learn More Only 1 in stock   Order
Pear - Beurre Hardy scion / bud wood

Pear - Beurre Hardy scion / bud wood

Botanical name   Pyrus
Rootstock   Quince (dwarfing), Pear
Details   Medium to large, yellow with cinnamon russet. Smooth, melting, buttery and very juicy. Rich aromatic flavour. Vigorous, healthy tree, quite hardy. Regular heavy crops in a warm location.Beurre Hardy (Pyrus communis) is in flowering group 4. Beurre Hardy is not self-fertile and needs a pollination partner of a different variety nearby. Pollinate with Clapp's Favorite, Conference, Nashi Hosui, Williams B COne of the few pear cultivars compatible with quince rootstock and therefore suitable for creating dwarf pear trees.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     pear  scion 
Related info Only 3 in stock   Order
Pear - Conference scion / bud wood

Pear - Conference scion / bud wood

Details   A long necked pear, one of the most popular varieties, known for its sweet and juicy flavour, making it a favourite among many fruit enthusiasts.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     pear  scion 
Only 3 in stock   Order
Pear - Doyenne du Comice scion / bud wood

Pear - Doyenne du Comice scion / bud wood

Details   Large classic variety of dessert pear, bearing delicious pears in mid-to late autumn. Green skin flushed red with white, melting juicy flesh of rich flavour. Tastes like sweetened cinnamon. Mid to late season. Upright and vigorous habit. High chilling hours needed to set fruit.As most pears need cross pollination, the planting of more than one variety is recommended or the growing of a double grafted tree. Pollinators include - Beurre Bosc, Williams bon Cretien, Winter Cole, Winter Nelis, Nashi Hosui and Nashi Nijiseiki.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     pear  scion 
Related info Only 2 in stock   Order
Pear - Red Bartlett scion / bud wood

Pear - Red Bartlett scion / bud wood

Details   Pyrus communis 'Red Bartlett' produces pears with bright-red skin when fully ripe. The fruit is very aromatic and has a melting flesh with good flavour. It ripens in mid to late summer and is an all-purpose pear that can be used for eating fresh, preserving, baking, and poaching.

Pollinators in the North Island are 'Packham's Triumph' and 'Winter Nelis', while in the South Island, the pollinators are 'Doyenne du Comice' and 'Conference'.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     pear  scion 
Harvest     February  
Learn More Only 3 in stock   Order
Pear - Williams Bon Chretien scion / bud wood

Pear - Williams Bon Chretien scion / bud wood

Details   The Williams Bon Chretien pear, also known as the Williams pear or Bartlett pear in North America, is a popular and well-known variety of pear.Large long necked, green-yellow fruit, that is ideal for eating and bottling. Fruit will naturally fall in February and will keep up to 3 months. Good pollinator. Early season.Pollinators include - Beurre Bosc, Doyenne du Comice, Taylors Gold, Winter Cole, Winter Nelis, Nashi Hosui and Nashi Nijiseiki.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     pear  scion 
Related info Only 4 in stock   Order
Plum - Elephant Heart scion / bud wood

Plum - Elephant Heart scion / bud wood

Details   Japanese variety with very large heart-shaped fruit and extremely dark red, sweet and juicy flesh. Superb freestone plum. Mid to late season. Good pollinator. Pollinators include - Omega, Santa Rosa and Sultan.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     plum  scion  stone fruit 
Only 1 in stock   Order
Plum - Purple King scion / bud wood

Plum - Purple King scion / bud wood

Details   Large, rounded, yellow fleshed fruit with red-purple skin. Sweet and juicy with a tendency to go dry and mealy when over ripe. Heavy cropper performing well in warmer areas. Cross pollinates with most other plums.
Price   $3.90  each
Price for 2 or more   $3.50  each if you buy 2 or more
Tags     plum  scion  stone fruit 
Harvest     January   February  
Learn More Only 1 in stock   Order

Currently out of stock, try back next season

Useful and related information, common questions etc.

Collecting, storing and posting scion wood

Collecting, storing and posting scion wood

Collection
Scion wood is collected during the dormant season from shoots that grew the previous year. In North Canterbury that is June - July. Vigorous growth of at least a 30 centimetres make the best scions. Water sprouts from up in the tree usually make good straight scions. Do not collect scion wood while it is frozen, and avoid wood that has been damaged by cold.

Storage
After cutting, scions should be tied in bundles, labelled, and stored under moist conditions in a temperature range of 4 to 7c. Bundles wrapped with damp paper towelling, sealed in plastic bags, and placed in a refrigerator store well providing it does not contain apples, pears, or other ethylene gas-generating fruit, as this is reputed to ruin the scion wood. However, wood sealed in plastic bags may not be affected?

Grafting time
Choosing when to graft can be tricky. What you want to be doing is performing the graft when the host tree or rootstock is waking up in the spring and the sap is rising and buds starting to swell, prior to blossom or leaf burst. Generally the grafting proceeds in the same order the trees flower and fruit, but earlier. Starting in mid to late august with almond followed by cherry, plum, peach & nectarine, nashi, pear and finally apple in late September.

At grafting time, cut off and discard the tip and base of the scion. Buds near the tip are often flower buds, and those near the base are often weak buds. The remaining portion of the stem is used to make scions each containing three to five buds.

Direct or Green Grafting
Scions of apple and pear (possibly others?) can be collected and grafted immediately in early spring. Mid August to mid October in North Canterbury

Postage
When we send scions they are bundled and labelled, sealed in a resealable bag with a wad of damp paper.
  grafting 

Rootstock compatibility for different types of tree

Scions of desirable species must be grafted onto a suitable, compatible root system or ultimately the graft with be rejected by the host tree.
The roots determine to size, growth rate and suitable soil conditions for the tree while the scion controls the flowers and fruit type and timing.
Most are only self compatible and so apple must be grafted to apple but as usual there are exceptions such as almonds onto peach.
  grafting 
Multi grafted fruit trees - Combine your favourite varieties on a single tree

Multi grafted fruit trees - Combine your favourite varieties on a single tree

Imagine a single tree with apples of many flavours, ripening from March to June, or combining apricots, plums and peaches.

A great way to save space and spread the yield over a longer harvest time.

While there is no limit to the number of different cultivars that can be supported from a single root system there are several considerations or complications that arise:
  • Differing growth rates can result in one type becoming overly dominant
  • Each additional variety increases the complexity of pruning
If you'd like extra flavours added to your existing fruit trees you can teach yourself to graft or talk to us and we may be able to help.
Quince root stock for grafting dwarf pear and loquat

Quince root stock for grafting dwarf pear and loquat

Botanical name   Cydonia oblonga
Details   Quinces are used as a root stock for producing dwarf pears, loquat and other quinces.

Root stocks can be created from root suckers, stool bed or seeds from overripe fruit planted in late autumn.
Flowers   White
Fruit / berries  
Tags     graft  dwarf  fruit tree  pear 
Benefits   The primary benefits are smaller trees that fruit sooner
Negatives   Many cultivars of pear are not directly compatible with quince and require double grafting with a compatible interstock
Pears grafted on quince have shorter lifespan than on seedling grown root stocks
Quince trees are prone to suckering, sending up growth from around the base of the tree and near damaged roots. These can be used as rootstocks.

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