Country diary: grafting to make new cider-apple trees
Written by Sara Hudston
Marshwood Vale, Dorset: These saplings will help improve the landscape near the line of pylons that stalk the area
We are in a barn, harnessing the strength of spring to make new apple trees. Smooth, supple twigs – scions – lie before us in labelled bundles. Hairy bunches of rootstock wait in a barrow, shrouded in plastic to stop them drying out.
It’s perilous preparing scions for grafting. You cut them slantwise, pulling the knife upwards through the wood in a single, fast jerk. It requires a ferociously sharp blade, one capable of slicing your thumb off if you get it wrong. The aim is to expose a long, flat oval of pale primrose-green ringed with white.
Related: How to make cider
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