Has anyone tried grafting cannabis?

Advanced Techniques
1

has anyone tried grafting cannabis? if you have, can you tell me more about it. i know how to graft, just thinking of wild ideas.

2

There is a lot of info in this thread about grafting trees. Starting about page 40.

2 Likes
3

Cannabis has such a short life-cycle that I’m not sure it would be worth it.

2 Likes
4

@noddykitty1 had this to say a few days ago…

3 Likes
5

thank you for this.

1 Like
6

Another rabbit hole i wanna jump into…

1 Like
7

Somebody , forgive me for not remembering who, has grown 40 + varieties i believe and has vast knowledge on trees and grafting posted on similar threads.

 I think having an auto with 5 strains would be cool.  Already have fruit trees with different varieties and types of fruit.  Why not cannabis.
8

that would be
@noddykitty1

2 Likes
9

@mosca, how did the cuttings go? Did you get the honeysuckle and crepe myrtle to take off?

10

2 crepes made it to the ground out of 6. Honey suckles are rooting slowly in water. Inprogress. Fighting triple digits

1 Like
11

@MidwestGuy — I see your point, but would a more fibrous root structure expedite nutrient uptake?

12

I’m not sure that I understand your question. Grafting has nothing to do with root structure.

1 Like
13

@MidwestGuy — Sorry I wasn’t clear, My Friend. Tree nuts, like almonds, and wine grapes are grafted to the root structure of other plants so they can grow in conditions in which their roots would not pass the muster. Would the same work with cannabis? I’m thinking if you had a plant with a mature root ball, could you graft a cannabis plant to it?

14

Grafting generally works above the ground. I’ve never heard of someone grafting roots.

1 Like
15

@MidwestGuy — It’s the same with tree nuts and grapes.

1 Like
16

The most common reason people graft are:

  1. To make a too vigorous tree less so. Dwarfing root stocks so to speak. Dwarf home backyard small tree vs 100ft tall grown on its own roots.

  2. Resistance to nematodes know to attack certain trees in certain areas. Ditto for fungi root rot problems. Some root stock is impervious to fungus and nemetodes that would devour the tree on its natural roots. Hello peaches I am talking about you. Peaches will always die if planted over or near hardwood species, especially oak without resistant root stock. The symbiotic mycorrhizae of the oak devours the peach roots and stems.

  3. Seedling top work. Say I sprout an apple or peach seed. Very few make good tasting large juicy fruit. One in a thousand apple and about one in a hundred peaches would be fruit quality. Small, mealy, stringy, pest prone, bitter, tannins. You know bad crab apples and dry small crunchy peaches. I can sprout 100 random apple seeds I pick out of cores and top graft something delicious to the top. 5$ cut scion of known genetics (think canna clone) vs buying a 5 foot tree from a nursery for 50-100$. Or better yet of my adult tree of know pedigree like a mother plant tree. To all the unproven seedling trees.

There is no reason not to do cannabis for fun. It’s not hard to do. But it’s an annual crop that grows fast. And most of us aren’t grafting the fire strains onto cheap field hemp seed roots. We are buying the fire strains. Fruit trees live for decades and take 3-5 years to pheno hunt. Rather than shit apples and out of luck we just use the roots like you mention and graft something yummy rather than starting over again. On cannabis I could almost do a whole run in the time my grafts would be callused over and healed. Also, cannabis has vigorous roots on its own.

If plant counts were stupid, like 1 plant, strictly enforced then it would be a sensible move. Or if you saved money sprouting hemp bird seed for grafting over later it would make sense. But all the root stock advantages you mention @Blaze_Up_Ahab are really only advantageous if you are growing something long lived like a tree.

That said, many tomato growers graft. They grow indeterminate tomatoes that have big roots and tend to be floppy and vining and smaller tomatoes like cherry and Roma. Think photos roughly same line of thought. Then they graft determinate tomatoes to the bigger root stock. Because determinate tomatoes have small roots and usually just set a few big juicy (think big slicer tomatoes like beef steak) fruit then the vine dies. Rather than replant they just graft them over early to get more fruits and a longer season. Think of determinate tomatoes roughly as autos.

So I don’t know if anyone has tried it, but it would be the equivalent of grafting a clone size cut of a young autoflower onto a big old mother plant of a photo. The idea is the auto could possibly grow longer and bigger with a large vegged photo roots attached to it. It at least is proven in tomato plants. I have never heard of anyone trying it to cannabis. It’s so easy to pop seeds or clone the good ones. Maybe I will do it for fun this next round. I would have to have an auto on its roots next to a sister cut grafted onto a large photo root ball. You just cut it off a few inches above the soil at the ankles. Then those photo roots push the auto. Think I am going to have to try this. Sounds like fun.

1 Like
17

It’s a common method in fruit trees. You can excavate the soil of a tree you have, take about 6” of a pinky sized root. Then graft a branch of another (same species) flavor of tree to it. It’s the most common way to graft mulberries and quite common in grapes. It’s called root grafting technique.
image

1 Like
18

@noddykitty1 — Dang, that was one informative post, My Brother! You know your agriculture. If you try this PLEASE do a grow journal! I would be riveted

1 Like