OK Folks, it's late, my insomnia has kicked in tonight, and so to this question that has just popped into my tired and addled mind. If this is a totally silly queation, please excuse me.
But first, some back story to my question. Many years ago, I worked in Greece and met an elderly couple who had a vineyard. All of their vines were grafted to rootstock that suited their soil, with the top grafted vine being the variety they wished to grow. Some of the rootstock were from a different genus to the Vitis vinifera top stock that produced their grapes.
The same couple had many olive trees including some that were decades, maybe even 100+ years old. When I was there, one of the olive trees, which was terminally ill, was cut off maybe 3 feet above the ground. The trunk was big and the elderly gentleman grafted some new scions from younger olive trees around the edge of the trunk, between the bark and the wood. He sealed up the join between the trunk and the scion with wax and raffia in a complicated joint. He worked with confidence, he had done it before.
So now, to my question. I have a tree that will need to be felled. It brings me great sadness to have a 70/80 year old tree felled, but as it is in danger of falling on my house, the decision is made. Now, the trunk close to the ground looks health, the problem lies with the upper tree structure. It is a Linden tree. Is it possible to graft a different genus of tree to a trunk of a Linden tree using the same technique as I saw in Greece. So I'm hoping to use the same technique but with a different genus.
Any thoughts will be gratefully received,
M
But first, some back story to my question. Many years ago, I worked in Greece and met an elderly couple who had a vineyard. All of their vines were grafted to rootstock that suited their soil, with the top grafted vine being the variety they wished to grow. Some of the rootstock were from a different genus to the Vitis vinifera top stock that produced their grapes.
The same couple had many olive trees including some that were decades, maybe even 100+ years old. When I was there, one of the olive trees, which was terminally ill, was cut off maybe 3 feet above the ground. The trunk was big and the elderly gentleman grafted some new scions from younger olive trees around the edge of the trunk, between the bark and the wood. He sealed up the join between the trunk and the scion with wax and raffia in a complicated joint. He worked with confidence, he had done it before.
So now, to my question. I have a tree that will need to be felled. It brings me great sadness to have a 70/80 year old tree felled, but as it is in danger of falling on my house, the decision is made. Now, the trunk close to the ground looks health, the problem lies with the upper tree structure. It is a Linden tree. Is it possible to graft a different genus of tree to a trunk of a Linden tree using the same technique as I saw in Greece. So I'm hoping to use the same technique but with a different genus.
Any thoughts will be gratefully received,
M
