A cut is made halfway around on the rootstock to peel off the bark. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 2
A cut is made halfway around on the rootstock to peel off the bark. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 3
With the same double-bladed knife, a patch of bark including a bud is cut from the scion wood. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 4
The bark patch containing the bud is carefully peeled off with the help of the knife. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 5
The patch containing the bud is ready to be inserted on the rootstock. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 6
The bud patch is inserted in the place on the rootstock where the bark was taken off. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 7
Budding tape is used to tie the bud patch in place. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 8
This is how the tree will look after the budding process is completed. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
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June Budding 9
This is how the tree will look after the budding process is completed. After a couple of weeks, when the bud-union has formed and the wounds are healed, the tape is carefully taken off. The buds start growing at this time. (Photo credit: Gurreet Brar)
Patch-budding is a commonly used technique to propagate walnut trees. Once the rootstock is established, the English scion variety is fall-budded onto it during August-September. The finished tree will grow by next fall.
However, a more recent technique called June budding is being adopted by commercial nursery operations in California.
For June-budding, the seedlings are grown in very fertile conditions and pushed hard to achieve buddable size in June, which will coincide with the development of current season scion buds.
The rootstock seedlings are budded in June, which typically provides the finished tree within the cycle of a year. Patch budding is performed using a double-bladed knife.
April 5, 2014 
