Onalaska High School natural resources students had an opportunity Wednesday to learn a practice utilized by fruit growers for thousands of years: tree grafting.
“We’re basically making clones,” said natural resources teacher Kevin Hoffman.
The school purchased root stock from the Burnt Ridge Nursery in Onalaska and grafted it to scion wood, “which is like, you go out to an apple tree or fruit tree this time of year and you help prune it … Then we keep it for about a month or so in the fridge, and then they’re cutting and putting them together,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman’s students grafted approximately 400 apple, pear and plum trees that the students can choose to keep, sell or plant on campus.
One student who Hoffman said went “hog wild” grafting trees last year ended up making around $600 by selling a portion of his 60 young fruit trees.
“That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to teach a skill that people can sell for money,” Hoffman said.
After grafting day in class, the new trees will stay in the school’s shop for a couple days before being moved outside to grow over the summer.
“Since they’re all labeled with initials, these students can come back and take them back home or wherever they want,” Hoffman said.
Some trees will likely be sold at one of the school’s annual plant sales, and some will be planted near the greenhouse on campus.
“In 10 years, the students will come back and there’ll be a full-fledged apple tree,” Hoffman said.
Michael Dolan from Burnt Ridge Nursery and Theresa Knutsen of Raintree Nursery stopped by Hoffman’s class on Wednesday to help students through the grafting process.
While this year is the second that Hoffman has incorporated a tree grafting lesson in his natural resources class, it was this batch of students’ first introduction to the process.
“It’s gratifying, for sure,” Dolan said of helping the kids learn to graft trees, adding that grafting trees has been a part of his livelihood for 40 years.
“It’s a useful skill to have,” he said.
Hoffman’s students have also been learning to propagate plants, including elderberries, grapes, currants and mulberries.
“We’ve learned a lot with this,” Hoffman said of the propagation project.
Many of the plants will be sold at the school’s Spring FFA Plant Sale on April 26.
