Farmers need strong, healthy plants that can resist the plant diseases and pests that damage crops. To grow more of the pink varieties, farmers became interested in growing grapefruits in places beyond Florida, grapefruit's first home in the United States.įruit color and seedlessness aren't the only traits that appeal to farmers. Consumers also preferred grapefruits with few or no seeds. Grafting also brings us other fruits such as red D'Anjou pears, as well as Red and Golden Delicious apples.Īs grapefruits grew in popularity through the mid-1900s, consumers developed a taste for the pinker, sweeter varieties. Using grafting, plant breeders can create a whole plant that has a desirable mutation that appeared in a budsport. The buds, limbs, and fruits that grow are from the tissue of the budsport. The two pieces are wrapped tightly together, and eventually, they fuse.The shaved piece is inserted inside the bark of the rootstock.Growers then slice some of the bark off the piece of budsport.A piece of stem with some bark and a bud is cut off the budsport.Growers slice open part of the bark of the rootstock and gently peel away the bark a little, leaving it on the stem, but making space between the bark and the next inner layer.The top of the rootstock is cut off, and any rootstock buds are removed if they grow later.Grafting is usually done on young rootstock before it produces fruit. A budsport can be used to make a whole tree by grafting the desired branch onto a host tree, called the rootstock.

Pomelo vs grapefruit differences