Application:

Widely used for clonal propagation of temperate and tropical fruit trees and temperate ornamental shade trees.  Tropical fruit trees such as citrus are T-budded onto seedling rootstocks largely to maintain the reproductive maturity of scion adult phase scion wood, and to take advantage of specific rootstock effects of various species rootstocks. Temperate ornamental shade tree such as cultivars of red maple, honey locust, green ash, and norway maple are budded onto seedling rootstocks, because they are difficult to root from cuttings or otherwise clonally propagate. . Hardy roses are T-budded onto field grown rootstocks lined out in nursery beds.

Timing:

T-budding must be performed while the rind (bark) is "slipping" (peels easily from the underlying wood), which corresponds with periods when the vascular cambium is active (spring, summer). During stock plant dormancy (winter, early spring, late fall), or drought stress, rind grafting methods like T-budding cannot be performed because the bark will tear, rather than slip. T-budding of apples is done in late August in upstate New York, while the tree is still in leaf and and actively photosynthesising, but after dormant buds have been set earlier in the growing season, in response to shortening summer days. . At this time the bark is still slipping even though dormant buds have been set. An advantage of fall (late summer) budding is that transpiration and potential water stress is reduced when buds are dormant compared to actively elongating shoots in the spring.

How to T-bud:

After the graft union has formed (in the case of the apple, the following spring) the portion of the stock above the bud is cut or broken off to force the bud into growth