Root grafting

When plants grow, I assume a lot of their energy goes to making roots. What would happen if after harvesting a plant, and leaving the roots in the soil, you grafted a clone on top of the already formed roots? Would it work?

Would there be accelerated growth? Or would it be forever crippled?

very interesting idea, i have no clue as to what would happen but id like to find out. you might run into problems with there not being enough plant above ground. the size of the plant is in step with the size of the rootmass, too much of either one and the plant dies.

(roundup works by making the roots grow super fast and the rest of the plant can't keep up so it dies)

if you can get past that issue, i'd think you could get some faster growth...anyone else?

Around here, they do it a lot with apple trees, and they never die.

I think they may do it for a different reason though, like a certain trees roots being immune to diseases, or very resistant to pests or something, and they want the fruiting capability of another tree, so they graft the tree onto different roots.

I have been very interested in grafting with other plants (veggies) that are in the same family, i have been trying to find information on grafting mj plants. Ex the clone to root or grafting different strains onto each other. I think that there is a big unexplored area in grafting mj plants and i think its a cool idea overall.

[quote=altoids]When plants grow, I assume a lot of their energy goes to making roots. What would happen if after harvesting a plant, and leaving the roots in the soil, you grafted a clone on top of the already formed roots? Would it work?

If you harvested all vegitation the plant would struggle to survive.

You might try taking two varieties of seed and plant them together as the roots will graft naturally under the soil and you can make a weaker blueberry stronger by growing it with the Afghan like I did. My blueberry was bumper but the Afghan was smaller so when strengthening one variety apparently it weakens the other. I suppose the Blueberry was sucking from the Afghan root structure. No the Afghan was not a Blueberry nor was the BlueBerry an Afghan and the two plants were indivdual plants with a common root structure. Something I tried so I thought I would share. When I did three plants like this they all were weaker plants. Of course I am working with seeds not clones and using the same 5 gallon pot I would use for one plant. Roots may have bound causing the decline in the Afghan too since there were two plants growing together.

My next experiement is going to be Blueberry mother's clone, grafted to an Afghan Mother. I'll then clone this grafted clone, to see if the Blueberry clone grafted to the Afghan Mother displays any significant improvements to yield and durability when it is cloned. I'd like to think this would allow me to cross strains without pollenating anything. I'll get back to this with pics after I see the results and can share them. Sure would be cool to get a 3ft Elephant Dick Blueberry Bud! If I get one I'll share the results with you...

i don't think grafting a plant is going to combine the genetics of the two plants. if anything it would be a chimera. you need the dna of both plants to get an offspring that contains the traits of both. otherwise, it's just a branch of bluberry stuck on a afghani host.

just my $.2. i don't know a lot about genetcis or grafting (yet). they are both on the reading list though!

i'm interested to see the results.


-shake

I agree with shake, and two plants from seed in the same pot are always gonna struggle for power.

however, I would find it very interesting to see someone graft a clone to some roots. that has the potential to save some serious time.

i'd agree too, grafting a clone maybe sounds possible/plausible, but growing basically two plants(seeds) together into one big root mass.....that just sounds like they are weaker because they are struggling for room for the roots being bound together....Doesn't sound like grafting, sounds likes a problem....:wtf:

I would say that root grafting is an inaccurate term. You will most likely not have the facilities nor the fine motor skills needed to graft roots; in addition your plants or roots would most likely die due to exposure to air/light.

What you're wanting to do is graft a cutting (not clone) onto a plant with an established root system . This means the plant would have to get cut with some stalk remaining. This would shock the root system and it would take considerable amount of time to recover. In addition any root pathogens that existed would effect the plant you grafted to it. Lastly; the roots would still need space to grow. So if you did successfuly get this to work then you would still have to increase the pot size a few times.

Due to the time it would take to recover from shock from cutting down the plant.. shock/acceptance of the grafting and trimming the rootball or potting up to stimulate new growth; you would probably be better to just let your clone root for 1-2 weeks and then put it in your hydro or soil grow.

Not only would this be faster but you would end up with a much healthier plant.

Can you graft a plant onto a plant with an existing root system; yes. Is it worth the time and effort it would take? I would have to go with a solid no but that's just my opinion.

good luck.

I would think grafting would offer no real advantage over plain cloning. Grafts are rather tricky to get right, and they have to be coddled too much to make it worthwhile for a plant which is destroyed at harvest. There's a reason people only graft trees, bushes, and cacti.