Budding in the Forest Garden:

Also referred to as "bud grafting," budding accelerates tree production and increases diversity in a Forest Garden. Rather than having a scion being made of different parts of plants like stems or twigs, budding needs only a single bud to serve as the point of contact with the rootstock. Budding will slightly accelerate fruit production when compared to grafting, with a higher success rate of unions between bud and rootstock.

Another benefit of budding and grafting is it allows Forest Gardeners to diversify what they are growing. If the varieties are compatible, Forest Gardeners can graft or bud a handful of different varieties to the same rootstock, allowing a single tree to produce multiple types of fruit - most commonly with citrus trees.

Discover step-by-step budding techniques like “T” budding and chip budding in Chapter 6 of the Technical Manual.