Grafting involves taking a cutting from a parent tree and joining it on to a new, healthy rootstock to produce a tree that will fruit true to type. A graft from a Bramley Apple Tree will always produce Bramley apples but a pip won’t as the pip will be the result of whatever the Bramley tree cross-pollinated with at blossom time.

     We can use grafting as a means of preserving local fruit trees that may be threatened by old-age or development.

     Kate Morison, Countryside Ranger, collected the cuttings from trees such as the ‘Leuchars Apple’ this spring. The ‘Leuchars Apple’ is an old tree in the grounds of the pub at the Leuchars roundabout, said to be an “Early Julyan” apple. Other cuttings came from old trees or trees on sites ear-marked for development.