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Tree Grafting
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
15788 Kelley Farm Rd., Elk River, MN 55330
763-441-6896 | kelley.farm@mnhs.org
About This Event
Learn the art of propagating your own fruit trees with expert Dr. Sue Wiegrefe! In this hands-on workshop, discover how to collect your own scion wood, practice grafting techniques, and get to take home your own grafted fruit trees.
Graft your choice of apple varieties to bring home: Chestnut Crab, Cortland, Roxbury Russet, Golden Russet, and Connell Red, all sourced from Dr. Weigrefe's farm, Prairie Plum Farm. Participants are encouraged but not required to bring garden/work gloves and a grafting knife.
About Dr. Sue Wiegrefe:
Born in Faribault, Minnesota the 2nd of 4 daughters to parents from farming backgrounds who loved gardening. Her youth was spent on 4H flower gardening and knitting projects among others. She worked at local garden centers and an apple orchard beginning in junior high.
Sue studied horticulture at the University of Minnesota as an undergrad then Woody Plants and Adult and Public Education for a Masters at UW-Madison. She continued at Madison for a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding/Plant Genetics with a Botany minor. She then did a 4-year Post-Doc at University of Minnesota, where she initiated a tree breeding program by traveling to eastern arboreta to use their already flowering-age tree. She collected pollen and made controlled crosses as the season progressed and she moved to locations further west. Her plant groups were maples and hornbeams.
The hybrid plants were allowed to accompany her when she was hired as a tree breeder at the Morton Arboretum near Chicago. There she added Ornamental Pears and the Nannyberry Viburnum group to the plants she worked on.
She enjoyed working with the college-age interns so much that she applied for and was hired at UW-River Falls. There she taught a variety of classes including plant propagation, plant tissue culture, interior plant design, and nursery management. A class fulfilling the ethical studies requirement called Plants & Society opened her eyes to connections between federal agriculture policies and things from land use practices to childhood obesity.
She left UWRF after 4 years to work with a company developing/domesticating nut crops as alternatives to corn and soybeans. She purchased and upgraded a small Amish farm near Mabel, Minnesota which had a bearing tree fruit orchard. She added sheep to the farm to help with the mowing and has enjoyed the added benefit of working with and selling their wool.
To keep the farm afloat, she has worked a number of full and part time jobs at museums, a nature center, a Soil and Water Conservation District, and substitute teaching in pre-K through 12 classrooms. Most recently she has been working for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture on their Spongy Moth (a.k.a. Gypsy Moth) monitoring.
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Saturday, February 20, 2027
Tree Grafting
Learn the art of propagating your own fruit trees with expert Dr. Sue Wiegrefe! In this hands-on workshop, discover how to collect your own scion wood, practice grafting techniques, and get to take home your own grafted fruit trees.
Graft your choice of apple varieties to bring home: Chestnut Crab, Cortland, Roxbury Russet, Golden Russet, and Connell Red, all sourced from Dr. Weigrefe's farm, Prairie Plum Farm. Participants are encouraged but not required to bring garden/work gloves and a grafting knife.
About Dr. Sue Wiegrefe:
Born in Faribault, Minnesota the 2nd of 4 daughters to parents from farming backgrounds who loved gardening. Her youth was spent on 4H flower gardening and knitting projects among others. She worked at local garden centers and an apple orchard beginning in junior high.
Sue studied horticulture at the University of Minnesota as an undergrad then Woody Plants and Adult and Public Education for a Masters at UW-Madison. She continued at Madison for a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding/Plant Genetics with a Botany minor. She then did a 4-year Post-Doc at University of Minnesota, where she initiated a tree breeding program by traveling to eastern arboreta to use their already flowering-age tree. She collected pollen and made controlled crosses as the season progressed and she moved to locations further west. Her plant groups were maples and hornbeams.
The hybrid plants were allowed to accompany her when she was hired as a tree breeder at the Morton Arboretum near Chicago. There she added Ornamental Pears and the Nannyberry Viburnum group to the plants she worked on.
She enjoyed working with the college-age interns so much that she applied for and was hired at UW-River Falls. There she taught a variety of classes including plant propagation, plant tissue culture, interior plant design, and nursery management. A class fulfilling the ethical studies requirement called Plants & Society opened her eyes to connections between federal agriculture policies and things from land use practices to childhood obesity.
She left UWRF after 4 years to work with a company developing/domesticating nut crops as alternatives to corn and soybeans. She purchased and upgraded a small Amish farm near Mabel, Minnesota which had a bearing tree fruit orchard. She added sheep to the farm to help with the mowing and has enjoyed the added benefit of working with and selling their wool.
To keep the farm afloat, she has worked a number of full and part time jobs at museums, a nature center, a Soil and Water Conservation District, and substitute teaching in pre-K through 12 classrooms. Most recently she has been working for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture on their Spongy Moth (a.k.a. Gypsy Moth) monitoring.
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10:30 AM
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