Graft

Despite being labor intensive, grafting is commonly undertaken as a means of vegetative propagation of woody plants for any or all of the following reasons: (1) to impart disease resistance or hardiness, contributed by the rootstock; (2) to shorten the time taken to first production of flowers or fruits by the scion, in some cases by many years; (3) to dwarf the scion, making both its height and shape more convenient for harvesting fruit, as with apples; (4) to allow scion cultivars to retain their desirable leaf, floral, or fruit characters, without the risk of these being lost through sexual reproduction; and (5) to provide the most economic use of scion material, in cases where there is some difficulty with stem cuttings producing roots.