I came across The Resiliency Institute’s course on tree grafting via meetup and it was awesome. I had stumbled across the idea of grafting as I was doing research about fruit trees and how to grow them and I wasn’t really sure what it was so it ended up being the perfect opportunity to learn. Grafting is essentially the same idea as cloning a tree. You need to have a rootstock for the base and a branch of new budwood from a healthy tree whose properties you want to emulate. There’s a number of different kinds of cuts (i.e. chip, T Bud) you can make in the rootstock- the basic idea is you want to cut into the bark a few layers, exposing the green stuff, also known as cambium. You then cut off a piece of the budwood with a bud in tact (be sure not to contaminate the bud with your touch) and gently position the bud so that it is in direct contact with the cambium of the rootstock. Once this is completed, all you need to do is wrap it all up, ‘closing up the wound’ in essence and you will be ready to roll.
The most striking thing about this whole thing is that with successful application of this method, you could grow multiple varieties of fruit on the same tree. They would have to be cousins (at a minimum), but with the proliferation of different species of fruit, the possibilities are endless.