The farm is in the process of grafting apple trees. We start by planting rootstock, Bud 118, which will create a strong base for tree on which to graft. When we graft we take scion wood from the desired parent tree, in this case a Golden Russet, and a branch from our rootstock. What makes an apple tree desireablevaries. It could be a good eating apple, or a tree that grew an apple with the correct tannin, acid and sugar profile to make cider. We take a piece of scion wood from the desireable tree and graft it to its new trunk, the rootstalk. We cut them both precisely and secure the branches together with tape. The tree will heal by forming a callous, sap will travel from the rootstalk to the new bud and they will join together to create the tree. When the tree matures it should produce the desired fruit, for this tree Golden Russet apples.

Why not just plant the Golden Russets directly? Every seed you plant in the ground produces a different plant, just like humans, the offspring (seeds) of the trees are not identical to their parents, so even if you used seeds from the most amazing apples, it is not guaranteed that your tree will produce the same fruit. If you want to produce a specific variety of apple, identical to the source you have to propagate, or graft it. Grafting ensures that we get the fruit we want by using scion wood from the desired tree. Some other benefits to this process is the root stock will help keep the tree about 15-20ft tall when a normal Golden Russet would grow to around 40ft, which is too large for our orchards. Bud 118 grafts will also produce fruit in about five years, rather than the 10-15yrs it would take a full Golden Russet to mature.

We have to extend our thanks to our neighbors at Even Fall Cider for providing us with high quality scion wood from their farm, thank you!