i don't think you want to remove the understock ... that would be the root system ...

do you mean the stock above the graft .... which was the upper part of the understock ...???

on an aggressive scion ... remove it as soon as you wish ... as close the the union as possible ... get it healed .. don't leave anything there to rot in the future ...

on a tiny graft ... the needles above the graft will provide food for as long as they stay on the plant ... but you would knock off any buds.. as we don't want the plant wasting energy growing up there ....

does that make sense??

ken

TCharles - If the graft is more than a year old, chop it off. For conifers, when new arrivals end up at your doorstep in the spring, you might want to leave the understock on for a year if it already hasn't beeen removed. However, the following spring it should come off. When dealing with dwarf conifers, often the understock is gradually removed until the dwarf has enough energy from itself to sustain life. Mini's in this respect are a bit different.

Naturally, this isn't the only way to do things, and others may chime in to dispute. All grafters will tell you that "whatever" works for them, is what they do.

Maybe this will clear things up a bit.

Dax

This was a graft I bought with the vegetative portion of the understock already removed and the union fully healed. My question concerns the portion of the old trunk above the graft union, about an inch or so. I nipped it off to just below the top of the graft union, but it seems like even if i didnt the growing scion would swallow up the old wood eventually.

eventually ... yeah .. probably ... if it didnt rot first ... and cause future problems ...

you did the right thing.... ken