Root grafting Yew

NJF

Can anyone advise me weather or not, English Yew (Taxus baccata) is suitable for root/nebari grafting. I have a very lob sided root structure on a potential shohin. I'm suspecting an approach graft is the way to go, as threading evergreen foliage through a thread graft would be near impossible.

Also, is it completely necessary to leave the remainder of the donor plant above the grafting union? As it's a potential shohin I'm not sure there will be room for this.

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Mcspeed

I would say your'e on the right track, but the second part about not leaving it up top because it's shohin is looking to show it off before it's ready. A bonsai gets ugly before it's pretty. Trying to keep it looking like a finished bonsai all the time is detrimental to the trees health.

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NJF

I took the plunge over the Easter break, my first graft. Here are a few photos. The first shows the tree before hand and the reason for the graft.

I had to put two screws in to hold the donner tree in place, one is covered by the sealant. It was quite a struggle to get it in the right place. I am also a little concerned, that on one side there is a gap in the join, which will probably have been filled with the sealant. Can anyone tell me if the bark will bridge this gap, or am I going to have problems later on.

Finally, am I looking at two or three years before I even take a look under the sealant to see what's happened?

Attached Images

	Yew-approach-graft1.gif (64.6 KB, 23 views)
	Yew-approach-graft1b.gif (52.2 KB, 21 views)
	Yew-approach-graft2.gif (55.2 KB, 20 views)
	Yew-approach-graft3.gif (65.7 KB, 23 views)

__________________
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.
The second best time is now.

froufrou

I'm a newbie so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.

You have to leave the upper portion of the donor plant attached until the graft takes. Helps the graft to take, prevents donor roots from dying before graft takes. After the graft takes, you remove the upper portion, so you have a new root.

Should either
1. Carve a deep enough channel in main plant to seat all or nearly all of donor plant, to make sure they fuse together
or
2. Approach graft where you purposely meet the cambium layer of both plants (i.e. cut a slit on both and put the pieces together) Could be single cut or double cut.

If you did either your chances are better.

Some plants will just fuse by sticking them against each other, but not sure of Yew.