Plant Propagation

Chapter 14 - Techniques of Budding (Chapter 13 in the 7th and 8th editions of the textbook)

Chances are that almost every apple, peach, plum, apricot, cherry, nectarine and citrus you've ever eaten was picked from a tree that originated as a single vegetative bud the size of your little fingernail inserted into the stem of a young seedling or clonal rootstock. It's also likely that if you've eaten one of the fruit above under the shade of a maple, ash, linden, ornamental pear, etc. tree, that tree also likely originated from a single bud, too! The same is true if you've ever enjoyed the fragrance of a garden rose while eating fruit picked from a tree.

Propagating plants by "budding" is simply far more efficient than propagation by grafting (except for herbaceous vegetables). It's possible to start several dozen new plants from a single, two to three foot long "budstick" as every bud represents a new plant - versus obtaining maybe only half as many plants if using multiple-bud scions. Budding is also much less physically demanding and depending upon the specific species and budding technique used, budding can sometimes be done at multiple times of the year.

(Reminder - because of the shifting of chapters in the new, 9th edition of the text book, the introduction screens for each of the videos below will reference "Chapter 13" - not Chapter 14.)