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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.
Not too sure you can successfully graft an annual like cannabis, (too soft a wood) but I guess it could be possible with enpough experience and time. But why? You would spend more time babying the plant back to health, than it would take to grow from seed, and the stress may cause hermaphrodism.Quote:
Originally Posted by altoids
...But there's always re-vegging or bonsai techniques, which I use often and are quite simple to do properly. (instructions are in my signature)
I have studied grafting a bit...ok, I've studied it a lot. And I read encyclopedias for fun. Grafting is entirely possible with many if not all plants. The science of grafting plants is well established. There is a way to cause genetics to transfer to another plant. From what I have studied, it is possible to graft one plant onto another entirely different plant species, or onto an established rootmass of a different species. There are several techniques of doing this, and it involves cutting the stem in a certain fashion, one of the cutting techniques is a wedge cut. I'm not sure, but I believe that you can use rooting hormone in the grafting surface of the two plants to stimulate assimilation. There are also certain techniques such as wrapping the graft in wax, tape, melted plastic (if it cools fast enough not to significantly burn the plant's epidermis) and other means, such as wrapping in a similar fashion with an ace bandage or something elastic like that. Depending on the structure of the inside of the stem...the xylum and phloem, and the diameter of the stem overall including the epidermis, different cuts and success rates should be expected. When two different types of plants successfully graft, at that point its a matter of CHANCE (or specifically, gene expression probability) that either plant will start to show characteristics of the other. In the event that it successfully does assimilate the other plant species, it will have to bear SEED.....or alternatively, you may be able to clone the part of the plant showing the mixed characteristics, but the success rate of the cloning after assimilation would probably be much lower. It would be better for the plant to bear seed. And even if it does bear hybrid seed, the genetics would still have to be stabilized through subsequent generations. Just my dollar, LOL. U.S. dollar is worth about $.02 anyway due to inflation, which is easily calculated when comparing the price of an ounce of gold. A US gold coin weighing one ounce (american buffalo) is hovering around $950, but has a face value of $50. When gold was actually worth $50 an ounce (early 1900's), minimum wage was about $1.60. Gold has increased in price by a factor of 19-20 over less than 100 years, while minimum wage has barely increased by a factor of 4-5. Thats hyperinflation.
Grafting can be used to change certain properties of plants. Basically anthing that is controlled by chemicals in the sap is altered by grafting. So pest resistance, disease resistance, maybe drought resistance if the cultivar has naturally weak roots. You can use it to produce certain types of fruit in ecosystems that it wasn't bred for. But the physical parts usually stay the same. The fruits look, taste, smell the same. The leaves stay the same shape. If it is healthier on the graft than it is on it's own rootstock it may have larger foliage and fruit with stronger branches, but if it's golden delicious it will still be golden delicious and will not turn red or have granny smith tartness even if it is on one of those rootstocks.
The problem with grafting is that it does not help the plants genetics. It is popular for fruit trees because breeding programs take FOREVER, you have to wait anywhere from three to five years to find out what you got with a tree variety, so there are several lines which are not continuously improved simply because grafting is very economical for something which will produce a crop year after year for 25-30 years. You have about a year when the graft is very vulnerable and you have to keep on top of your pest and disease control.
I believe it could be done successfully with cannabis but you can run breeding programs through two to three generations per year easily, so the time is better spent improving your variety.
I am only an armchair expert, so if anyone with more experience in the orchard business sees something wrong or wants to clarify something I've said I'd like to hear it, and I think the OP would too. Grafting may be useful to give you a target to aim for so to speak. You find a good grafting combination you know there's a chance to develop a strain like that by breeding the stock and scion together possibly? And a graft may heal up a lot quicker with a high metabolism plant like cannabis than on a fruit tree. I don't know, but I'd like to try sometime. Maybe that's my next experiment!!
There should be a link in my signature for re-veg (or bonsai) techniques.Quote:
Originally Posted by altoids
Wrong. The roots will not "graft naturally"...they will compete, and one plant (at the very least) will suffer.Quote:
Originally Posted by StrokerSmoker