Today I found out there's a way to propagate fruit trees that is superior both to grafting and cutting, and I am both mad that I didn't know this before, and crazy excited about trying it out, it's almost like plant magic!
The name of it is Marcotting. It's a great way to save old fruit varieties that are dying! Or if you just have a tree you want a clone of.
So this is what you do. You pick a fruit tree that you want to clone, and you pick a healthy branch, take a knife, and peel a bit of the bark off, only about 1-2cm. Then you take a plastic bag, tape it so it's fastened under the cut, fill it with wet soil, and then tape it again, above the cut. What you did was make sure that the part of the peeled bark is completely surrounded by soil.
You leave that soil bag on the tree for 2 months.
And it will grow roots in there.
Once it grows roots, you can cut that branch off, and plant it. It will grow like a new tree, 100% the same genes, same species, 100% giving you the same fruit.
I'm so insanely excited to try this, most cuttings just die for me, and all trees from seeds either need to be grafted, or will be giving some wild produce, but this is a simple way to gain any fruit tree that you can get away with putting a little bag of soil on for a few months. The varieties that are usually easily propagated this way are citrus, fig, mulberry, and lychee. It takes 6 months for an apple tree to get roots like this!
Here's a link where you can read more about it, and a video where you can see it being done! Go forth and plant those fruit trees. Future generations will prosper from your effort.
