How to Graph a Weeping Cherry Tree
- 1). Cut bud sticks from weeping cherry trees in the fall from the current season's growth. The best bud sticks usually come from the interior of a plant. They should not be on the tip of a limb, but should be at least 6 inches away from the branch's end. Each bud stick should contain about three buds on it. You can tell vegetative buds apart from flowering buds because vegetative buds are small, slender and pointed.
- 2). Place the bud stick in a plastic freezer bag filled with 1 cup of damp peat moss. Place the plastic bag in a refrigerator set to 40 F. Leave the bud stick in the refrigerator over the winter.
- 3). Pick a rootstock tree to graft your weeping cherry tree vegetative buds onto. Most weeping cherry trees are grafted onto mazzard cherry rootstock on which the canopy is 6 feet off the ground. Wait until late July or early August when the bark slips from the tree to graft the buds onto the tree.
- 4). Cut the bud from the bud stick by placing a grafting knife 1 inch below the bud. Make an angled cut up and under the bud with the knife sloping into the branch until it reaches a point 1/2 inch above the bud. Turn the knife outward and slice the bud away from the bud stick.
- 5). Position your grafting knife 15 inches away from the trunk of the mazzard cherry tree rootstock. Make a T-shaped cut through the bark, but not the wood beneath it. The cut should be in the top of the tree's branch and should be the same size as your bud.
- 6). Peel back the two flaps made by the T-shaped cut; do not let the bark tear. Place the bud against the wood beneath the T-shaped cut and fold the flaps of the bark around the bud.
- 7). Wrap the union with polyethylene grafting tape to seal it and to hold in moisture. Do not cover the bud with the tape. Unwrap the tape in two weeks when the bud has healed onto the branch.
- 8). Remove the rootstock branch 2 inches above the new bud after the bud begins to grow into a branch the following spring.
