Oak Approach grafting question.

[Graft]

Hi BNutters,

I have posted this question in the native tree comp forum, but I haven't had a response so thought I would try my luck here.

I have an untrained small oak tree that was planted in a mound of substrate. Due to this it has several reasonably thick aerial roots that grow straight down out of the trunk. I was thinking whether or not it would be possible to approach graft these onto the main trunk. They are flat to the trunk anyway. I am thinking that this would make the trunk look thicker and have better taper and root flare.

Do oak trees naturally graft if I were to just add some pressure (wrap the roots onto the trunk with electrical tape) or would I need to shave off some of the bark to get a graft to take.

Any information you might have would be great to know.

 

[Shibui]

I have not had to approach graft any oaks but all trees will eventually fuse (graft) where bits of the same tree or same species are in close contact. Exposing the cambium can speed up the process if everything goes right but sometimes exposing cambium causes some slight dieback and fusion can then be delayed. Worst case is that one or more of those roots could die when you take bark off. The smaller they are the more likely they are to die off it seems.

 

[Graft]

Thanks @Shibui so just wrapping the roots around the trunk it the direction I will go in spring. I'm hoping it will look pretty funky and help thicken the base of the tree. Thanks so much for the advice.

 

[TomB]

This might be workable on something like a Ficus or Trident, but on an Oak, given the slow growth rate (assuming Quercus robur), this will always look awful. Even if the grafts take you will regret it in years to come. Either cut them off, or raise the soil to the level of these roots if they will give you a better nebari.

 

[Graft]

Thanks @TomB

It's a bit of a "throw away" tree anyway. The roots do not all come out at the same level and they are already flush to the trunk. They don't look too bad (in my un-educated) opinion. I would like to try it just to see what happens! it might look like crap in a few years. But that's OK. It only cost me a couple of quid. And it's a good excuse to practice a method that I have not done before.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I have not had to approach graft any oaks but all trees will eventually fuse (graft) where bits of the same tree or same species are in close contact. Exposing the cambium can speed up the process if everything goes right but sometimes exposing cambium causes some slight dieback and fusion can then be delayed. Worst case is that one or more of those roots could die when you take bark off. The smaller they are the more likely they are to die off it seems.

I second this and point out that like species in a grove graft all the roots into essentially one tree. We have an Oak wilt disease here causing sudden Oak death and have to be very careful to not trim one in summer or the whole grove can die.