You can save that little crab apple tree that the rabbits have girdled.
Sometimes a lawn mower, a wire, or a boring insect has injured a young grafted nursery tree, and the roots keep sending up shoots, but the top is standing still. Most of the root strength goes into sucker growth, but this strength can be re-directed into the original top.
If these root suckers originate below the graft and grow unchecked, you will have a seedling tree rather than the grafted variety you purchased. It has happened millions of times!
Trying The Inarching Method
When the little Dolgo crabapple in our front yard kept sending up root suckers, we cut them off. The roots just sent up more.
We soon tired of this and decided to try our hand at inarching. If successful, this would be a permanent solution.
We gathered our tools during the spring growing season—a sharp knife, tree tape, and grafting wax. An inverted “T” cut was made through the bark of the trunk above the injury, and the bark lifted slightly.
A sucker was cut off above the height of the bark cuts to make a bow when bent into place. A diagonal cut was made on the side of the sucker nearest the trunk. I exposed the Cambium on the sides of the sucker.
The Cambium
The Cambium, between the bark and the wood, and the inner bark produces the callus, which must grow and unite with the callus formed by the inner bark and the Cambium of the trunk.
When the sucker was bent and inserted into the trunk’s bark, considerable pressure required strong wrapping with tree tape to make it hold. If it broke loose in a week or two, it would have to be done over with new cuts lower down.
After the sucker was secured, we waxed around the cut areas with hot graft wax purchased at our garden store. This keeps the cut areas from drying out before healing.
Removing The Leaves
During the first and second years, leaves and growth should be removed from the arches to channel strength to the original trunk.
The homeowner with only one tree to save could substitute adhesive tape for tree tape, and polyethylene plastic (used in the freezer and garment bags) could be used to seal the area in place of graft wax.
Where no suckers are tall enough to extend above the encircled area, dormant cut branches (of the same species) can be substituted and grafted to the injured trunk below and above the injury. This is called bridge grafting.
Bridge grafting and inarching, practiced by orchardists for years, can be helpful to amateur gardeners and homeowners.
44659 by Clarice Hickox