Should you propagate your own trees?

Some growers do not like the expense of ordering trees for their orchard plantings and think they can propagate their own. This can be a very costly mistake. Propagating and growing trees is a very specialized business; trees require special equipment and training. Much care is required to ensure that trees are not neglected, that they do not become overgrown with weeds or suffer from water stress.

Another consideration is that many of the latest cultivars are protected by plant patents. This means you are in violation of a patent should you collect budwood from one of these trees for propagation in your orchard. Patented trees cannot be propagated without paying a royalty to the original source.

Fruit growers need to realize that they are in the business of producing either fruit or trees. Rarely can a fruit grower produce trees as good as those sold by a reputable nursery. Any savings realized by propagating your own trees are quickly eliminated by the added cost of production delays from poor-quality trees.

There are, however, certain instances when growers may wish to propagate a few trees for particular reasons. If you want to propagate a few trees, your best choice is to purchase rootstocks from a nursery and either graft or bud onto them. Set aside a small area and grow the trees out one year before planting them into the main orchard blocks. It is much easier to care for young trees if they are grouped together in one location where they can be checked daily. Scattered throughout the orchard, young trees easily can be forgotten and become overgrown with weeds. Do not try to plant the rootstocks in their final space in an orchard and then bud them. If you have poor bud take, tree size in the block will not be uniform since you will have to use replants to replace the missing trees.