Got these amazing LSU Purple and soon after I received them  (twelve days ago) i put roots (from my tree) at the very bottom in tiny sliver cuts, just enough to shove them in (some smaller than tooth pick) -  the 5 cuttings were in the same container over moss. 

In twelve days, it formed a full circle of callousing and it protruded the scoring marks, so, I removed the band and the graft seemed sealed.  So I planted in a cup.

So I decided to graft another in the same maner ( with green background).  Pictures were taken just before I secure them with the rubber band.

Grassa,
    It's great to see you back in the operating room again.  Your experiments are mind boggleing.  Please keep us posted on this.  The pictures are great.  I have grafting rubberbands and Parafilm from the nursery.  If you want some, let me know.  I wonder if useing roots from another variety will alter it from being LSU Purple.  Maybe it will be a mix of the two trees?  Or maybe its just a way to get soil nutrients into the cutting until it establishes it's own roots? 

That's an interesting experiment, root grafting is done on a few trees, but no one bothered doing so on figs. This have to be tried on trees with weak growth. You would accomplish the same results by grafting unto another tree.

I have found that LSU Purple is a prolific root producer.  So much so, I decided if I needed to propagate for rootstock, it would be LSUP.  This tree started out as basically a rooted cutting.  When planted in Feb. it had two roots about 2-3 long each.  When I bare-rooted it the following Feb. it looked like this (that is a standard "pull apart" chop-stick sitting on top of it):

Here is a close up to show how dense the roots were (I had already cut off some of the length):

@grasa
That sure is one (rooting) technique not familiar to me (I never claimed that I am an expert!).
Please do let us know the end-result (~6 months from now?).

Very nice work, Grasa.

P.S. - don't forget to send me your address via PM.

This is something that sure should be tried on Black Madeira.  Thanks for all of your experiments and photos, Grasa!  I wish you had nicer weather for figs to accommodate your love for figs.

Grasa



Real cool stuff is the white powder rooting hormone?
Keep it up


George

Curious George here...

I wonder what any alignment (if any) you used.
For example; I know that for wood-to-wood grafting, aligning both cambium-layers is very critical.
How about root-to-wood grafting?

And thanks for all your experimenting/research work/effort....

Maybe it is good for black ischia, a healthy, vigourous cultivar maybe could help push some of the loss of vigour from the infection of it to produce some good branches?

I'd been following Grasa's lead on this. I started a few of these last month just as an experiment. Looks to be working. I will have to post some pics later.

I plan to do a bunch more like this.
Reasons:
1). I've had better success with grafting than I have with rooting cuttings.
2). Also, I have a lot more  roots available than I do root stock trees .

@ Chivas. I've done some grafts with Black Ischia onto a  BT root stock but in the typical fashion. I plan to try a few more this spring on a couple of other root stocks that I know to be more vigorous.

I'm with you on this Grasa ;-) .

Congratulations on your success Grasa!
Like George I am curious if you scrape or cut off the outer yellow layer of the root where it touches the cambium of the cutting. From the pictures it remains unclear.
Thanks,
Boris

Bass,
What other trees you know that can be root-grafted?
Thanks,
Boris

I only know that LSU Gold has roots resistant to nematodes, and those with nematode ridden soil, could use it as root stock.  And with all Grasa's root grafting info, how can anybody lose?  LSU Gold is going high demand, trust me!

Great photos Grasa.
I've tried what you are doing and my cutting is on day eleven and the grafted root part has 1/4" to 3/8" new white root growth on it.
The root stock had been severed from the in ground pots for about a month and a half and still in the ground and then I pulled the roots out of the ground and put them in the fridge. After sitting in the fridge for a month and a half I finally grafted them on a semi dormant cutting.
I can't really see any callousing on mine though. Time will tell. This is fun anyways.

By the way, this is a Hardy Chicago cutting with a Kadota root.

You all inspire me. We have bad weather here, so I must figure something to grow figs here, everyone that knows figs tell me I am wasting my time, as only few figs produce here. Well, if this works and the roots of a local tree can make the wonderful varieties produce, than more power to them.

Sam, I did that way in the beginning. I am not a biologist, nor have a clue where a cambium is, except from looking online. so, the only thing I did at first was to cut a slanting cut on both root and cutting - they worked!  But with time and experiments, I think this is the best so far - 12 days is great for the huge accomplishment when the other sibbling cuttings did not even show signs of rooting. If I have that big root you had, I would separate it in several little ones, shorter roots are easier to manipulate. Yours seem to have taken off nicely! Great job!

I attempted to push a toothpick between the outter layer and the white core, just enough for me to push in a small root, but that did not work, so for this shown above, i cut with blade and just loosen  the cut sideways with the tip of the tooth pick, in 3 areas. this cutting is not even  1/2" in diameter, so the is less than 1/4" between one cut and another.

  I prepared the root as for cleft graft, I washed them with soap and very warm water, and keep them in wet paper towel while I am working, so they dont dry out. the cut is made with slant on one side and a little exposed core and push it in the small opening of the cut and loosen skin. once firm in place i hold it tight and put all others in their cuts. This well calloused above had the band removed in 12 days! for the new one, I used compostable plastic - has a streach and breaks up easy, hoping this method will not require me to open the band (I noticed on other grafts that took long, the band constricted the new cutting - and was difficult to remove the bands, so I am moving away from them)

Vince, thanks for the offer, but I like to do my things the hard way, and I am a scavenger, recycling what is at hand. it is working so far, this is not a production nursery.

Yesterday I prepared 2 Natalinas- here they are with compostable plastic wrapping ( easier to work than rubber bands).

Of course, we won't know what this will turn out for  a few more years.

From my experiments, preparing the cutting with bottom cut just below the node and preparing the roots (we know roots alone will  not grow branches) - the grafted roots appear to trigger the cutting to root - seen how quick they are growing, is rewarding to me.

Grasa, I'll have to try your method with the little roots on the end . It sure looks a lot easier. 

Grasa, I really hope this will help us to harvest figs from some tender varieties.  Looking forward hearing your grafting experience when we meet in the future.  

Your little loop holes are interesting. I get bud, whip, side, bark, wedge and cleft grafts BUT root grafting? Now that's what I call "short-cuts". I confess, I find your grafting experiments a little scary but with results like this, your experiments have more leverage as far as convincment but that is just me. Only time will tell. I hope to see more successful results. You are doing great


P.S
I bud grafted Col de Dame Noir to BT 3yr old rootstock and another (Col de Dame Noir) whip graft on Paradiso rootstock. Still under evaluation.
Jennifer

I'm not trying to be disagreeable or cause a stink.  I am, however, still a trying to understand the advantages of this process...

I see Bill's point about sometimes having more roots than rootstock, but is there more to grafting on roots than that?  In the past, we have been warned not to plant with the union close to or below the soil line.  This is because the rootstock has desirable traits for a rootstock and the scion wood has desirable traits for top growth.  For those trying this, are you hoping to eliminate or minimize "traditional" grafting?  Or is there an advantage to grafting roots which would more traditional grafting techniques obsolete? Or is it just something cool to try?

Thanks.

James, for me it's just fun to try something different to see if it will work, but figs root easily so I'll continue on with the normal rooting way.

Grasa,
Thanks for sharing your info. Please keep us updated on the growth/progress of the cuttings.

Grasa is so saavy!  She nails it, and we listen!  Keep it coming girl!

Grasa, if there were a Nobel prize for figs you'd get it.  Would you post pictures of the process?  Show us how you cut the wood and how you cut the root and how you put it together?  Thanks!

James, I think this is a great way to get hard to root cuttings without the risk of breakage or rootstock budding.

Bob,
With all respect to Grasa, the Nobel Prize would go to China as many US jobs went. Grasa was inspired by a picture of root grafting done by a Chinese person. However, she replicated the entire process without knowing the details, just based on her intuition and common sense.

Anyways, I doubght it is a new type of graft. Probably it was invented thousand of years ago and has resurfaced now on our forum as a well-forgotten old method.