Many folks in Appalachia have enjoyed growing fruit trees around their homes for decades. Although times have changed, many still like to receive the pleasure of growing and enjoying fresh picked fruit from their own backyard. While they enjoy raising fruit, the majority still needs basic information and knowledge to be successful with fruit production. Each year, the county agriculture agent receives and answers several calls about fruit tree production.

The University of Kentucky Extension Program has been providing learning workshops about fruit tree grafting for our clients for decades. This spring the agriculture agent taught a grafting workshops for the clients at the Extension Office and at the local high school FFA students. Fruit tree-grafting is beneficial for many reasons; clients have the chance to produce heirloom varieties that they love, produce fruit trees for cheaper, and produce a stronger tree by grafting. Over 80 participants, grafted fruit trees for the 1^st time this year. Along with that each participant gained knowledge about different techniques and benefits in grafting. 

Another service provided by the Knott County Extension Office is that at the end of winter they start taking orders for rootstock. Those who order the rootstock usually have been grafting for years and are more experienced grafters. However, there are some years where new grafters are interested in saving those heirloom fruit trees. This year over 250 pieces of rootstock was sold to clients. Which in return allows for hundreds of new fruit trees to be placed into production throughout our county for years to come. So, In the future the Knott County Extension Service looks forward to helping clients with all aspects of fruit tree production.