\nThis is excellent. Now that it\u2019s fall and the trees in my city are bearing, I\u2019m always bummed out by the lack of free and open fruit trees, which very often fit the profile of the trees planted in city parks. The only difference is prettier springs and more fruitful falls (lit+fig). This particular experiment is made possible buy the sterile fruit trees planted as part of a city initiative, but the guerrilla planting of fruit trees is always possible, as well as finding older fruit trees and grafting new varietals on to create a healthier tree.\u00a0
This is just glorious!
\nFor anyone who doesn\u2019t grow, grafting is a trick you can do with many plant species. Because plants have no immune system, you can cut a branch from one tree and attach it to another tree, and that branch will continue to grow. Bind the two plants at the join for long enough, and the two will grow together, giving you, basically, a Frankentree. Sometimes the plant tissues will even grow into each other, so you end up with single branches that have living tissue from both plants in them, like some kind of chimeratree.
\nThey don\u2019t even need to be the same species (though they do need to be compatible). A lot of plants you can buy from professional growers are actually grafted. It\u2019s quite common to take a plant with a strong root system and graft the top half of another plant to it \u2013 this can let you grow plants in environments which wouldn\u2019t normally support them. If you ever see chilli plants on sale, it\u2019s quite common for them to be grafted. Look for the join, low down the stem, a few centimetres above the soil.
\n![\"image\"](\"/media/tumblr_inline_p8qkc1mrKC1qzk22h_540_b75a3ad81a89.png\")
You can be audacious with this kind of thing, and grow fruit branches on trees that wouldn\u2019t normally bear fruit, or you can even grow one tree with multiple types of fruit.
\n![\"image\"](\"/media/tumblr_inline_p8qkcaKxN21qzk22h_540_da55adb620dc.jpg\")
Guerilla grafting though. Heh! I like that!
\n