How to Graft Japanese Maple Trees

How to Graft Japanese Maple Trees

You might not realize it, but many of those elegant Japanese maples that you see at the store were propagated through grafting, not seed or cuttings.

This tried and true method has been the go-to for centuries.

Maybe you always thought grafting was for the advanced, super-experienced growers. It isn’t. Anyone can do it.

When you have a Japanese maple tree you love, you might want to be able to recreate it.

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Or maybe you have an idea of a tree you’d like to cultivate, but you aren’t sure how to go about it. Grafting can help you.

If you’ve never grafted Japanese maples before, don’t feel overwhelmed. We’ll break the process down, step by step. Here’s what to expect:

Grafting is a form of asexual or vegetative propagation that involves combining two separate plants to create a new plant.

The top part is called the scion, and the bottom part is called the rootstock. The rootstock might be just a section of roots with a trunk and no branches or leaves, or it might be an existing tree that you add a branch to.

People have been grafting for millennia in order to improve plants. You can pair, say, a rootstock that features resistance to fungal disease with a scion that has particularly elegant leaves, but typically struggles with fungal issues.

Many people use grafting to propagate new Japanese maples and growers have done so for centuries. These days, Acer palmatum stock is usually the standard, but it’s your garden, and you should experiment as you see fit.

When grafting, you’re going to cut into the tree to some degree, depending on the type of graft you use. So we