Root grafting

[Rusty Trichome]

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?

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.

...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)

Rusty Trichome Reviewed by Rusty Trichome on 05-14-2009. 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? Rating: 5

[blackdragon]

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.

[JD1stTimer]

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!!

[Rusty Trichome]

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?

There should be a link in my signature for re-veg (or bonsai) techniques.

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.

Wrong. The roots will not "graft naturally"...they will compete, and one plant (at the very least) will suffer.