Roots-to-Fruits

Roots to Fruits - School Nurseries to Feed Communities works with students and teachers to propagate nurseries of 50 – 200 saplings of varieties of fruits that are especially requested and adapted for school plantings in their area.  Common Vision educators demonstrate the process of grafting fruit trees (see Grafting 101 below). Students witness and participate in one of the most amazing miracles in nature, the combining of two trees to give both strong roots and delicious fruits.  Common Vision gives students the charge to care for the young trees for two years.  These trees can then be planted at community centers, in local low-income neighborhoods, and in schoolyards during Fruit Tree Tours to come. 

While each seed in an apple core will grow into a fruiting apple tree given the right conditions, only very rarely will the tree produce large and sweet (or even palatable) fruit like the apple from which the seed came.  The only way to ensure the quality and character of the fruit is to cut a branch off a tree with the quality of fruit that you desire.  This little branch (or scion) has several nodes out of which future branches and buds may grow.  All the little branch needs to grow an entire tree out of one of these little nodes is a steady flow of sap.  Grafting is the art of attaching the sap flowing (or cambium) layer of the little branch to the sap flowing (or cambium) layer of a tree with roots.   With a few careful cuts and some tape the little branch of the desired fruit variety becomes one tree with its new roots and grows into a full sized tree.  Grafting is the method used for the propagation of most common fruit trees.