Approach Grafting a Ficus benjamina

[Redwood Ryan]

Hi everyone,



I'm going to be approach grafting a Ficus benjamina here shortly, but have a quick question. I realize that you must create a channel for the grafted branch to go into, but does anyone have any tips on the best way to create this channel? Just use a sharp knife and cut it out? This is probably a dumb question, but I've never grafted before

I'll be taking a branch from the bottom of the tree and attaching it to the upper right side, as shown in the attached picture.

 

[bonsai barry]

Hi everyone,



I'm going to be approach grafting a Ficus benjamina here shortly, but have a quick question. I realize that you must create a channel for the grafted branch to go into, but does anyone have any tips on the best way to create this channel? Just use a sharp knife and cut it out? This is probably a dumb question, but I've never grafted before

I'll be taking a branch from the bottom of the tree and attaching it to the upper right side, as shown in the attached picture.
View attachment 22404

I'm not an expert but the goal is to attach the branch in a manner so that the cambium of the branch is touching the cambium layer of the trunk so that they can fuse together. The cambium is the growing section beneath the bark.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

I'm not an expert but the goal is to attach the branch in a manner so that the cambium of the branch is touching the cambium layer of the trunk so that they can fuse together. The cambium is the growing section beneath the bark.

That's what I thought too, so would you think a channel isn't even needed?

 

[mat]

I started a few grafts myself this Spring, one on a benjamina. I think that Ficus are pretty forgiving in general and will fuse quickly when growing and healthy. You probably don't need a channel. I carved one into my plants though. It made the intersecting angle a little better. I used a box cutter and some pliers to dig out a groove. I also used a pin to hold it in place. I used a rooted cutting as the donor plant rather a branch off the same tree - not that that will affect the method or the result - just mentioning it.

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow, if they survive the Easter egg hunt scheduled for my backyard.

 

[Lancaster]

Approach graft I did on a trident maple from about a month ago. This was not for branch placement but to improve the nebari, but same principle.
I made an approx. 1/4" wide groove about 1/4" deep by 3/4"-1" long. I just used my dremel with a small fluted bit. I shoved two small seedlings into
the groove and used heavy duty staples. Just hammered the staples in until the seedlings were snug.

They are growing fast and filling up the void already. Within a few months I will be able to cut off the exiting seedlings and I will have roots where I wanted them.
If you can get the staples out at a later date, that would be ideal, but if not, the tree will eventually "absorb" them with no ill effects.

Note: I did not try to match the cambium layers or shave the branch flat. When the seedlings fill up the groove and start spilling out over the edge, the tree will have found
its way with merging or melting the cambiums together, making them one in the same.

Hope this helps.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

I started a few grafts myself this Spring, one on a benjamina. I think that Ficus are pretty forgiving in general and will fuse quickly when growing and healthy. You probably don't need a channel. I carved one into my plants though. It made the intersecting angle a little better. I used a box cutter and some pliers to dig out a groove. I also used a pin to hold it in place. I used a rooted cutting as the donor plant rather a branch off the same tree - not that that will affect the method or the result - just mentioning it.

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow, if they survive the Easter egg hunt scheduled for my backyard.

Thanks! I am beginning to wonder if I'll need a channel now. Ficus are fast growing, and I've gotten pretty fast growth from this benjamina. Good idea about the box cutter use though, I didn't think about that. Have fun with the Easter egg hunt!! LOL

View attachment 22405View attachment 22406

Approach graft I did on a trident maple from about a month ago. This was not for branch placement but to improve the nebari, but same principle.
I made an approx. 1/4" wide groove about 1/4" deep by 3/4"-1" long. I just used my dremel with a small fluted bit. I shoved two small seedlings into
the groove and used heavy duty staples. Just hammered the staples in until the seedlings were snug.

They are growing fast and filling up the void already. Within a few months I will be able to cut off the exiting seedlings and I will have roots where I wanted them.
If you can get the staples out at a later date, that would be ideal, but if not, the tree will eventually "absorb" them with no ill effects.

Note: I did not try to match the cambium layers or shave the branch flat. When the seedlings fill up the groove and start spilling out over the edge, the tree will have found
its way with merging or melting the cambiums together, making them one in the same.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Lancaster, that does help. The pictures help as well, as I need to figure out how wide to make the channel if I decide to go that route, still deciding though...

 

[tree4me]

If the branch your going to graft has no roots then I believe you will have to channel out trunk and have the cambium layers meet cleanly and securely as the graft needs to be feed from the new location on the tree. The root grafts are self sustaining until they fuse with the trunk and the leader can be removed leaving the roots as part of the root structure. I have tried several approach grafts with ficus, some with aerial roots to sustain the graft and some with out by matching the the cambium(only 1 of 5 worked out). Hope this helps.

 

[edprocoat]

Redwood Ryan, coming out the top of the trunk like that it would be easier to use a power drill. This worked for me with minimum scarring on a Ficus, match a drill bit to the diameter of the approach graft where you will be attaching it to your tree. I started my hole at the top of the tree, I put the drill bit tip about two of the drill bit widths away from the edge of the flat top where the graft would be exiting and held it an angle where I thought it would come out about 2 inches down the trunk, it actually exited the trunk 1 and 1/2 inch below the top on the side. I then took a razor blade carpet knife and starting at the top and cut down into the opening, which gets closer to the outside of trunk the farther you go down it. After you make the cut you pry it open, I used a putty knife starting at the top and sliding it in the slice from the top and slightly prying it back and forth top open it up. When I got it open I held up the branch, measured it for size by eye and made two cuts up the branch about the width of a match stick apart 1 and 1/2 long, then I cut around the graft on the top and bottom of the two cuts while ensuring I did not cut through the original matchstick shape I left with the two cuts. At this point I took my fingernail and scraped off the bark to the wood leaving the one section of bark still attached across the wound made by removing the bark, I read somewhere that this strip of bark allows some nutrients across the wound to aid the graft.

Then I popped it into the slice on the trunk and coming out the top. I wrapped the section of the trunk with saran wrap, removed that in just over a month and it was pretty well healed. Two weeks later I cut the graft at the point where it entered the trunk and both the graft and the donor lower branch lived. Hope that helps some.

ed