The Grafter's Handbook
I've been looking for a book
on grafting for years, and for years I thought one didn't exist.
Most books about tree fruits have a short chapter on the topic, but I
really wanted something I could sink my teeth into. Finally, I've
found it!
The Grafter's
Handbook is by R.J.
Garner, who worked as a scientist at the East Malling Research Station
for twenty years. In case "Malling" sounds vaguely familiar, it
should --- the research station gave its name to many of the apple
rootstocks developed there. Garner's book is a treasure trove of
hands-on experience, all summed up in easy-to-read and
scientifically-designed chapters. Garner even hand-drew over a
hundred excellent diagrams to illustrate his points (and included a few
more dozen photos to prove his grafting techniques aren't a pipe dream).
The only downside of The
Grafter's Handbook
is that it was published in England and is now out of print, which
makes it rather hard to find. I lucked out and bought a gently
used copy on Amazon for $10, but if you can hold your horses, there's a
revised
edition coming out
next year, updated by British gardener Steve Bradley. (When I
started this review, I was actually going to say that the only thing
that would make this book better is if it was lightly updated to
include modern tools, so now I almost wish I'd known about the revised
edition before I bought and read this one.)
This week (and next),
I'll be regaling you with highlights from The
Grafter's Handbook
at lunchtime. I hope it will inspire you to try your had at
grafting this winter just like it did me.
| This post is part of our Grafting lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries: |
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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