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Grafting In grafting, a twig from a cultivar is set on the rootstock. Such a twig is called a scion. Good scions are cuttings of 5 to 10 cm long from a one-season-old twig that is about pencil-thick. Each scion should have two or three well-developed leaf buds. For good results, the stock should be more advanced in growth than the scion. Therefore scions are collected early in December or January and kept dormant in clean, damp sand in a cold spot outdoors. They can also be kept in a cold-storage room, in which case they should be stored in plastic bags at about 2째C until the time of grafting. Any grafting must be done in winter when trees are at rest and the sap is not running. It is therefore not necessary that the stock be standing in
Figure 35 A scion in which the bud scales have begun to show growth. Short scions give good results under the generous growing conditions in Japan. Photo by Arie Peterse, 28 April 1996, Yuki * Experimental Station of the Flower Association of Japan, Ibaraki Prefecture.