Grafted vs Seedling Fruit Trees - Which to choose? (1/2)

Grafted Fruit Trees vs Seedling Fruit Trees

(Video Transcript)
So a really common question here at Daleys is what is the difference between a grafted plant and a seedling and I'm just going to show you a couple of examples. So I have here a  seedling Feijoa so this plant is grown from seed and there's going to be a lot of variation between each tree so if you had a 100 trees that were each grown from seed the fruit that each tree produces is going to be slightly different so they don't necessarily grow true to type is what we call seedling variation and they're all genetically different so if you wanted to cross pollinate trees 2 seedlings are going to cross pollinate or you can also cross pollinate a seedling tree with a grafted plant such as this. Now if you look at these 2 plants and this one is a grafted tree, this one is a Duffy. You can see that the foliage is slightly different so this is juvenile foliage and this plant goes through a juvenile phase much like people become teenager and then adults. So this goes through a juvenile phase where as this plant already has it's adult foliage. So this is grafted and it's grafted down here and this is basically a miniature mature tree. The fruit that are produced on this grafted variety are going to be true to type so they are going to be exactly the same as the parent tree, you are going to know what you're going to get and it's going to fruit much quicker than this seedling tree. So there are advantages and disadvantages of both the Advantages of a seedling is they tend to be more vigorous and more  hardy they also grow slightly larger and the advantage of your grafted plant is that they are true to type and they fruit quicker. There are also different maintenance things so this grafted plant is grafted onto a seedling plant exactly like this and you need to de-sucker anything below the graft so if you look closely here you can see the graft and here's the sucker so this is a seedling sucker and it's really important to maintain your grafted plants by removing all the suckers so that's a really important maintenance to maintain your grafted tree for this seedling is going to be more vigorous and it can actually overgrow your graft it can kill off the graft because it has more energy so it's really important to get your secateurs and cut that sucker off.

Seedling Jackfruit Fruit Tree - Up to 24kg in weight

Seedling Jackfruit Trees can crop Jackfruit within 4 years even though the fruit can weigh up to 24kg. They are great wind breaks and the fruit is used in many dishes throughout the world.

Seedling Jackfruit Fruit Trees are for sale

Seedling Grown Jackfruit Fruit Tree for sale

Transcript of Seedling Grown Jackfruit Video

Feels like a bag of cement to me. It's a beauty.Now this is a seedling Jakfruit Tree Jakfruits are one of the most stunning trees and impressive trees and that's basically because of the size of the fruit. So they do produce the largest fruit in the world with some varieties producing fruit that are 20 kg or 24kg even so really big fruit. so really big fruit and we're going to try picking  one of these big ones today and getting it back. So it weighs about  as much as a bag of cement. and we have got to carry it 

 down the hill But this seedling tree would be about 20 years old and it's quite a large tree They fruit off their main trunk and branches and unusually they can also fruit off their roots. if they're exposed so they can produce fruit on the ground but most of them come off the main trunk and branches closest to the trunk and obviously that is where the wood is the thickest. so it can hold the weight of of the fruit great tree to grow you do need a frost free location so they are going to prefer the tropics or the subtropics but they are also quite a hardy tree so if you want to grow them outside of that range and you've got a frost free location they're certainly worth trying. They make a great win break tree so seedling trees are ideal for that and they're actually great for protecting your more sensitive trees like lychees from strong winds so grow your jakfruits on the outside and give them plenty of room so that they can grow into the beautiful majestic tree that that they are

Planting Mango Seedlines to be used as Rootstocks for Grafted Mango Fruit Trees

We are excited getting our mango seeds down for the season. These seeds will later be used as rootstocks for grafted mango fruit trees

Aliya planting Mango Seeds

Close up of mango seeds after just being planted

Anyone for Mangoes - Great crop of R2E2 Mangos

R2E2 Mangos that will be used for seedlings

Anyone for mangoes? We have a great crop of R2E2 mangoes which we need to eat our way through to get to the seeds. It is a hard job but someone is going to have to do it.

Buy Grafted Longan Fruit Trees like Kohala - Fruits Faster

Have you tried Longans in the shops lately? If not give them a go. The Longan variety called Kohala is grown by a technique called marcotting so that the plant you get is going to have a large crop, amazing taste and will start fruiting within a year or two. They cost more because many hours goes into growing them and it is a fine art when compared to growing seedling longans.
If you just get a seedling Longan tree you will be waiting longer for fruit plus the quality of the fruit and the size of the crop is a gamble. Another good thing about all Longans is that they can handle colder temperatures when compared to Lychee Trees.

Grown By Grafting, Cutting, Seedling, Marcot

Seedling Plant

Seedling

A seed is planted and germinates to grow into a tree. For some plants this is the easiest way to propagate them however there are some draw backs. For example if you plant a seed when the plant finally fruits the taste of the fruit may be nothing like the fruit of parent tree it came from. It will also take longer for a seedling tree to bear fruit than it would for a grafted or cutting grown tree. The pros of a seedling tree is that they have more vigor and are faster and stronger growing than grafted or cutting grown plants, they will also have a much stronger root system which makes them more suitable for marginal climate. For example if you were wanting to grow a longan in Victoria a seedling tree is the best choice for all of these reasons. Seedlings trees will all be genetically different from one another and each tree will be slightly different meaning the fruits your pick off your tree will be unique.A technique called cincturing can also be used to encourage seedling trees to start producing fruit in a shorter time frame than the tree would normally take

A Grafted Plant

A Grafted Plant takes a Scion ( Young shoot ) from a mature tree and then joins this to the rootstock of a seedling plant. This has many advantages. Firstly a rootstock can be selected that is vigorous and disease resistant. Secondly we know the taste and quality of the fruit from the mature tree we took the scion from so we know that when our new grafted tree fruits it will taste the same. Because the tree is mature it also means that the plant will start fruiting straight away or much quicker when compared to a seedling. Grafted plants are more expensive to produce due to the labour involved in propagating them. They also require some degree of maintenance when they are small with particular attention to the suckers that are produced by the more vigorous seedling rootstocks, any shoots that form below the graft need to be removed a process that is called desuckering or they will drain the energy from the graft and if left unchecked they can kill the graft. Because grafted tree do not go through the juvenile phase they tend to be smaller growing than seedling plants and are ideal fro growin in containers where they can be kept as dwarfs or for espalier where pruning and cincturing techniques can be used to keep trees to a compact and manageable size

Cutting Grown Plant

Also known as Striking or Cloning this is is where you take a stem or young shoot from the plant and place it into a soil medium and then under the right conditions this will cause it to produce roots. This method like grafting means that we know the taste of the fruit from this tree. Cuttings grown plants will all be uniform but they can tend to have a weaker root system than seedlings or grafted trees.

Marcotted Grown Plant

Also called Air layering, Marcot, Marcottage and is like a cutting except instead of the roots being formed in a pot inside the soil. It is formed on the branch of the tree inside a plastic bag of soil.

Marcot plants just after harvesting them

Tissue Culture

This is basically making microscopic cuttings. Plant hormones are used to make the cells first divide rapidly and then to differentiate the cells into stem, root and leaf cells. Initially the plant cells need to be grown in sterile conditions to avoid fungus infections, these are called flasks. Once the plantlets have formed roots and shoots they are deflasked into potting media and grown on. Tissue culture is possible because plant cells have the ability to differentiate into different cell types, so the initial cell can turn into leaves, roots and stems forming a whole plant. Tissue cultured plants are genetically true to type and identical to the parent plant and is another form of asexual propagation. It is an excellent method to eliminate viruses from the plants and for this reason it is used for banana propagation.

Rhizomes and Tubers

Plants propagated by rhizomes and tubers are lifted and divided or dug up in the winter when the rhizomes are harvested and replanted. Examples of plants grown in this way are ginger, galangal, arrowroot and asparagus. Rhizomes are typically long term investments and will grow in size, and therefore productivity, with age. Asparagus is, indeed one of these long term investments.
Tubers are neither roots nor rhizomes, but are often found in their company and are, in fact, a growth of reserve nutrients. They are rich in simple carbohydrates (starches) and sugars, which is what makes them so delicious. It is this stored energy that gives them the potential to grow a new plant at a moment’s notice or lay dormant until conditions improve. Sweet potato are an example of a tuber.

Scions

BUY: VIEW ALL SCIONWOODS For Sale

A young piece of wood from a proven quality variety that is grafted onto a rootstock. To purchase this item you need to be competent in grafting.

Scions sold on Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery are rated according to the 3 skill categories below.

Scion Beginner Skill Level

Most people should get success when grafting this scion variety. A practiced grafter should be getting close to 100% success rate.

Scion Intermediate Skill Level

If you have never done a graft before it is best not to start with this variety. However a practiced grafter should be still getting quite good takes. Creating the graft with this variety is often a bit more difficult. You should not be expecting to get 100% takes but 80-95% success rate has been achieved by practiced grafters.

Scion Advanced Skill Level

Only an experienced grafter who has been successful grafting an intermediate scion in the past should attempt to do an advanced scion graft. Even when you are experienced you should be expecting to get 25-75% success rate.