Growing Sustainable Coppiced Rootstocks for Grafting Fruit Trees

Growing and grafting our own fruit trees is part of our sustainable way of life. Fruit trees are very vigorous and grafting them onto smaller rootstocks means the fruit tree never gets so big that the fruit cannot be reached. What's even better is that rootstocks are able to be grown, divided and re-grown. We show you how in this video.
Once you have one rootstock you never need to buy another.
The techniques and plans we show you are from our experiences growing our own food on our smallholding and endeavoring to be self-sufficient.
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Opening Music credits: Artist = Earth Tree Healing
Composer = Claudine West
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[@saminsc8552]

Thank you, thank you, thank you from the USA on behalf of all budget-limited newbie gardners and homesteaders like myself seeking freedom from today's obscene retail nursery prices. This video should be mandatory viewing for all would-be home orchardists.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thank you Sam. Honestly grafting is easy enough for anyone with a pocket knife and patience

[@josemanuelcuervo-uria7743]

Very well explained. Thanks and cheers from Spain.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thank you Jose 🙂

[@simongrimwood5942]

Well presented! Nice job 👏

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks Simon!

[@ashmaz4811]

Awesome video 👍

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks Ashley, I love the idea of growing a beautiful heritage apple tree at no cost!

[@victoriabriscoe1802]

Really enjoyed the video, thank you for the tutorial.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks Victoria, I hope it's useful!

[@robrees1242]

Great video again, thanks for making this 👍

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks Rob, I love the idea of people producing wonderful heritage fruit trees with just effort & time. These things should be available to all!

[@stephenpeppin5537]

Thank you!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Glad that you enjoyed it!

[@jason46742]

awesome once again!!!!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks Jason! I feared it might be a bit "niche"!

[@jason46742]

@@EnglishCountryLife I think it continues the saga of apples trees! From grafting, pruning and then products from the tree!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@jason46742 Thank you! Heritage apple trees are really quite a price now, so I hope this makes growing them possible for more people!

[@wirradaisy]

I came across your channel a couple of weeks ago and have made my way through quite a lot of your catalogue already! I'm so enjoying watching and learning about all the interesting things you do, even things that I probably will never try myself. Very engaging and easy to follow along with what you're doing and why :)

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks so much Kate - we really appreciate it!

[@inbloom2006]

Very interesting! I would definitely be interested in seeing more about propagation, strawberries especially.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

We'll fo that then when the season starts 😉

[@rahmanhalim4476]

Talented teacher... very informative, simple and well done video... and above all very gripping... bless you!... you guys are so passionate about smallholding in a way that is so inspiring From the depth of my heart I wish you all the best... I wish you guys had sheep as well to teach us about sheep rearing... it is an integral part of my dream 😊

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks do much Rahman! Sorry for the lack of sheep! You can look at our friends channel - he keeps sheep! kzbin.infovideos

[@farminfabrication2208]

Great video thanks! If you were to take a sucker from any old wild crab apple would it be a mm106? I didn't know that was where they originally came from.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Hi! The simple answer is no, there are a variety of different rootstocks that produce different sizes of trees. This graphic explains it well www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/apple-rootstock-pear-rootstock?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5oiMBhDtARIsAJi0qk3NsnGB2zai0t_039TqZfmNLnu2-1pITPuTW--NwvEaCjDTV2wuc40aAic1EALw_wcB

[@pottyplotter2462]

A couple of years ago I had a really nice Apple tree that the voles or something ate through the bark so killed the top, so because I'm not one for throwing things out I kept it knowing full well that the resulting tree will be the rootsock not the nice Apple it had. I didn't know it is going to be so valuable until I watched your video! Now I know what to do. Thank you. On a side note, a few years ago I collected the seeds from shop brought apple's planted in the allotment, now I have 8 fruiting trees with 3 of them producing really tasty and good sized fruit the others are a mixture of small sour apples that I haven't found a use for yet. 🌳🍎

[@EnglishCountryLife]

That's fabulous! The real problem with growing from seed us that all seeds are hybrids and don't breed true to the tree that produced the apple. Many orchards pollinate using crab apples (hence small bitter fruit!) . If you want to know a little more, I explain it in this video. Hugh kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHfQpKV_d5Zqh7c

[@simongrimwood5942]

The small sour apples might make good cider?

[@lukejones1244]

can you do this with citrus?

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Absolutely but there are different rootstock species e.g. Citrus aurantium L. for lemons

[@lukejones1244]

@@EnglishCountryLife I'm finding it so difficult to find books on "french layering" when the coppiced tree has its new shoots pegged down on the surface of the ground so that each node puts out a shoot, which is later earthed up to make many layers along each stem. The old rhs book was the only one that briefly mentioned it, but doesnt go into it in much depth.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@lukejones1244 The propagation book definitely covers a variety of layering techniques including French (with illustration)