A group of volunteer reserve wardens got the chance to learn the art (or science?) of fruit tree grafting from Andrew Spray at Colwall orchard this month. The group spent the day at the orchard and grafted around 10 fruit trees each. Grafting can allow us to continue rare and ancient fruit tree species and David Watkins (reserve warden for Common Hill), used grafts from some of the trees on the reserve in the hopes of replacing some of the older trees as they mature and die.

Here the wardens tell us a bit about their day.

"We spent the first part of the morning in the classroom learning about why trees are grafted and the specific characteristics of the various rootstocks available. We then moved onto a discussion of the various grafting techniques, concentrating on the ‘whip and tongue’ graft (the technique we would be practising in the afternoon). After the classroom session it was time to head out into the orchard to select and cut the scions from a wide range of apple varieties available, incidentally the cuttings were selected to assist (in a small way) with the winter formative pruning of the trees. Back in the classroom for the afternoon it was time for the practical exercise of grafting the scion to rootstock, then wrapping and waxing the joint, and importantly labelling the tree. At the end of the afternoon we all came away with a number of grafted apple varieties and mine are now safely potted up and safely stowed in the fruit cage. We should know in a few weeks what the success rate is.

The Colwall Orchard Group has a great facility and orchard, Andrew is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic on the subject."

Bob North

"The history of grafting goes back nearly 4000 years. Who knew? Well, Andrew Spray for a start. He told us that as part of the introduction to the workshop dedicated to teaching us the art of grafting. The venue was the Colwall Village Orchard Group. There was Andrew and five HWT volunteer wardens with previous grafting experience, ranging from zilch to I read a book on it once.

We were in the ‘apple packing shed’ which thankfully on a cold day, was a cosy room with a wood burner. Andrew, missing his normal teaching partner, Tim, through COVID, talked us through the history, theory, techniques and real life examples of grafting shown on a computer screen. This part was brought to a close with Andrew demonstrating how a scion (apple variety) was grafted on to a root stock (differing sizes and traits denoted by M numbers). The technique we used is known as the whip and tongue graft. We students were all ears and eyes because we knew it would be our turn next.

We ventured out into the cold and the stunning community orchard with 250 trees covering the spectrum from desert, cooking, cider and perry. Each tree has an unique number located on the orchard map and the exercise was to locate your chosen trees. Next, with loppers and ladders, we pruned a piece of last year’s vigorous growth from the top of the tree. This creates the scion.

Back at base after thawing out, M25 root stocks and scions were cut precisely and brought together under the watchful eye of Andrew. After taping, wax was applied (the trickiest part I thought) and the grafted stock labelled. We created a variety of of about 10 grafted stocks each. At the end of the day we took them home to pot up, nurture and (hopefully) plant out somewhere nice next year.

So, despite the title, it wasn’t hard work, nor did it involve any motorway. It was in fact a very enjoyable learning experience. Thank you very much, Andrew."

David Arrowsmith