This Technique is used regularly to asexually propagate fruit trees and other woody plants that do not readily root from cuttings. While nearly all of the plants that are commonly grafted can be produced from seed, the variability in the plants produced is so great that it is more practical to clone these plants by grafting. Apples, Peaches, are a good example of this.

The fact that the seed from a Fuji apple will produce an apple tree, but it will not produce a Fuji apple tree. Likewise, the seed from a Honeygold apple will not produce a Honeygold apple tree. In other words, fruit trees cannot be reproduced "true" to the original cultivar from seed. They can only be reproduced by grafting.

Grafting describes any of a number of techniques in which a section of a stem with leaf buds is inserted into the stock of a tree. Grafting is useful however, for more than reproduction of an original cultivar. It is also used to repair injured fruit trees or for topworking an established tree to one or more different cultivars.

The portion grown from seed becomes the root system and is called the rootstock, and the portion that develops from the inserted bud of a designated variety becomes the aboveground portion of the tree and is known as the scion.

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