SC - plant grafting

[Mark.S Harris]

At 12:01 PM -0600 12/20/97, jeffrey s heilveil wrote:

>The only way that the were able to continue growing grapes was by
>importing American root stocks, and grafting European varieties on them.

And Cariadoc commented:

But there is still a legitimate distinction between old world grapes
grafted to new world roots and new world grapes (Concord et. al.). 

I don't know if the root stock
affects the characteristics of the grapes at all, but I wouldn't it expect
it to be the major factor.

>>>>>>>>>
My opinion matches Cariadoc’s. It is a lot easier to just replant with
the New World stock if grafting the old variety onto the new roots
didn’t keep at least a large amount of the old traits. With four
hundred years of additional breeding though, I imagine the current 
grapes now would differ from their medieval ancesters even without the 
grafting. Though not as different as the native New World varieties.

Anyone have any idea how old plant grafting is? Is it medieval? 
It does not seem to be a very obvious technique to me.

Stefan li Rous
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