Forestry Memories

Grafting of Scots pine onto root stock

Grafting of Scots pine onto root stock

Date Added: 27 February 2018 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1960 Picture No: 3948

Photograph is courtesy and copyright of Forestry Commission, Forest Research, Roslin, and provided with help from Glen Brearley. FR Photo number No C3681 taken by I A Anderson.

An image of plus tree scions being grafted onto rootstock planted out in a future Scots pine seed bank at Alice Holt. Can anyone confirm if the use of four root stock trees is and insurance policy and the best ‘take’ would be the one retained?

The advantage of using this method was a rapid establishment of future seed trees from known high quality ‘plus trees’. Also important was the early prolific coning habit of trees originating from grafts or scions. Tree banks were usually left to cross pollinate freely but could also be subject to controlled work where individual female cones were pollinated with individual male cone pollen to produce a known cross.

Please see the PDF for the finished grafting operation.

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Groups: Forest Nurseries, Forest Research, Forestry in Action

1 Comment

I think the man making the graft is Colin McLean an early member of the Genetics team based at Alice Holt and his allotted species was Scots pine. He was one of the first to transfer from Alice Holt to be based at Bush Nursery in the mid fifties (before N.R.S. was built around 1961) His wife was also a member of Genetics staff with a main interest in Douglas Fir and a skilled Grafter. Comment left on 01 March 2018 at 09:55 by John Keenleyside
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