Grafting is about taking living pieces from one plant, and attaching it to another plant where it continues to grow. It’s a technique used in growing fruit trees mostly, and it could lead to some interesting experiments if you have space for trees in your garden.
Why Graft?: The general reason is that you want to combine aspects of two trees together into one. Each section keeps its own qualities though. They don’t really “blend” together.
The most common reason to graft is to create dwarf fruit trees. Using the root portion of a naturally dwarf tree, you can replace the top with another type of fruiting tree, and the resulting tree stays dwarf in size. That means you can turn any tree into a more manageable size without having to actually breed a new dwarf variety.
One interesting benefit of grafting is that you can create your own unique tree that may produce several kinds of fruit, which is a huge boon to anyone trying to raise food in a small space. Some impressive grafters have created huge trees that can produce dozens of different kinds of fruit.
Lastly, it means you can take advantage of a really successful tree you already have. You could harvest some fruit and seed, and hope that the offspring trees are just as great. But you’re taking a genetic gamble. On the other hand, you could take a few branches and graft them to other root stock, basically created clones of your original tree.
How to Do It: To simply add a grafted branch to an existing tree, you need to cut a careful notch in the base tree. Then trim the end of the branch to snugly fit. Insert the new branch, and tie the whole thing tightly together. Grafting wax can help seal the wound until the tree heals over on its own. The new piece will immediately start to draw water and nutrients through the open tissue, but it will keep its own unique genetic qualities. With a few seasons of growth, you can hope to see flowers and fruit on your new branch.