Last weekend I went to the California Rare Fruit Grower's scion exchange in Berkeley.  The room was packed with enthusiastic gardeners trading scion wood from their favorite varieties and discovering new varieties they might want to try growing.  I brought scion wood cuttings from my unknown red apple tree.  After attending the seminar on grafting I realized how tricky it can be and how important experience and practice are to success.  Since I have one shot to save this old apple variety I decided to let the volunteer members do the grafting for me.  As Tom the grafter said, “for the princely sum of $3, we will sell you a rootstock and for another $3 we will make the graft for you”    I couldn't pass up that deal.  The real value was that Tom talked me through the entire process of how he made the whip and tongue graft and how to take care of my new tree.   Matching the diameter of the scion wood to the rootstock is key to getting the cambium layers to line up and make a successful graft.  He chose the right diameter wood from my cuttings, made the slanting cuts, cut a little tongue and groove to make a stronger graft, and sealed the graft with Parafilm® and grafting tape.   I then went straight home and planted them in five gallon pots.  The plan is to grow them out and then plant them in my yard once the final garden plan is developed.  Tom advised me to cut off any rootstock suckers as they grow and to thin any fruit from the tree the first two years to allow strong development of the tree.  I'm going to use what's left of my scion wood to practice grafting onto the new tree, so by next year I will be ready to do all this myself.