Chip budding is often used for fruit and ornamental,

Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months.

For chip budding, a

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.

Bark is the outermost layer of woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody climbers). It is several cells thick and provides protection against physical damage, disease and environmental stresses. Bark comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns, and these can help gardeners when identifying plants. The fissures and crevices of bark on older plants also creates valuable habitat for many garden creatures as well as lichens and small plants.

bark

Before you start, you need to choose a rootstock (the plant you will be propagating onto). Rootstocks can often be bought from rootstock growers and nurseries that specialise in the type of plant in question. Alternatively, they can be raised from seed or cuttings.

Choose a rootstock with desirable characteristics; such as a dwarfing habit that makes fruit trees more compact, or a rootstock that resists root diseases, or one that is easier to propagate than the

A shoot (or bud) cut from a chosen plant for the purpose of grafting (or budding) onto a rootstock, in order to produce a new plant.

From mid-summer choose the

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.

• To prepare the rootstock, cut off all shoots and leaves from the bottom 30cm (1ft) of stem.
• To prepare the ‘budstick’, remove the soft, fleshy, tip growth and remove all leaves with knife or secateurs, leaving 3-4 mm (1/8in) stubs of leaf stalk.
• Using a clean, very sharp knife make a cut 2cm (¾in) below a bud, inserting the blade about 5mm (¼in) deep at an angle of 30 degrees.
• Make a second cut about 4cm (1½in) above the first. Cut down through the wood to meet the first cut, taking care not to damage the bud.
• Then immediately make two cuts in the rootstock about 15cm (6in) from the ground to exactly correspond with those on the
  A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.

  bud chip and remove the resulting sliver of wood.
• Place the bud chip into the ‘lip’ of the cut rootstock so that the cambium layers match as exactly as possible. Bind the join tightly with
  This involves joining the roots of one plant to the stem of another related plant, so they fuse together to form one plant. There are various methods, all requiring great skill. Grafting is mainly carried out by commercial growers to combine one plant’s qualities of flowering or fruiting (the upper section or scion) with the vigour or resilience of the other (the roots or rootstock). Fruit trees are often grafted, along with a few ornamental shrubs and trees, and in recent years grafted vegetable plants (mainly tomatoes, but also chillies, cucumbers, aubergines, etc) have become available.

  grafting tape or strips of polythene taken from a plastic bag, leaving the bud and leaf stalk exposed.
• The tape can be removed once the bud starts to swell. Insert a
  A cane is a slender, straight, length of woody plant material, usually bamboo. Canes are primarily used as plant supports. The fruiting stems of blackberries, raspberries and hybrid berries (such as loganberries and tayberries) are also known as canes, so these crops are often referred to as cane fruit.

  cane and tie in the new shoot as it develops. 
• The following spring, cut back the stock just above the bud. Plant out the following winter after the bud has grown into a new tree.

Failure of

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.

Knowing when to remove the

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.