In the world of horticulture, the phrase "forcing graft" means to prune a newly grafted tree in such a way as to direct all the tree's energy towards to growth of the scion. During early June, I try to visit each newly grafted tree to check of graft success and to "force the graft". The tree pictured above is typical.
The scion has successfully grown and is making new shoots. However, sprouts originating from below the graft union are threatening to out compete my graft. Shoots growing from the seedling rootstock have the red pigmentation typical of juvenile pecan tissue. The scion, on the other hand, was cut from mature pecan tissue and buds out fully green in color. To direct all the growth towards the scion, I pruned off all the stock sprouts (photo above). This simple procedure is key for promoting rapid scion growth. In fact, pruning off stock sprouts is something that needs to be accomplished every 3-4 weeks during the summer or until the scion becomes totally dominate over the rootstock.
