I know this seems like a simple question, but I don’t think it is. One poster touched on this very briefly in another thread, but I thought I’d start a thread to ask this question more formally.
I’ve always read/heard the cambium is the green tissue under the bark. The problem I have with this is that when T-budding the rootstock, I’ve not noticed any green tissue touching the newly placed bud. In other words, when opening the “T” I see blond “naked” wood on the little trunk, and blond colored wood on the inside of the bark. The "green tissue is on the bark, but it’s not exposed when opening the little bark flap. It’s behind the blond colored bark. So when the new bud is placed inside the “T” on the rootstock, no green tissue from the rootstock touches the little new bud chip.
Furthermore, for improved success rates, it’s recommended to remove the little piece of wood in the bud chip, so that the bud chip doesn’t have any wood to interfere with the contact of the bud chip and the cambium (I sometimes do this if the little piece of wood is easy to remove.) My question is, how can the cambium be green, when all I see is blond wood on the trunk where the bud chip slips in.
I think this is an especially relevant question given that we can’t seem to figure out the color of a white and gold internet dress
Seriously though, it does not seem to make sense that the cambium is green.
Appleseed posted this video some time ago. In it the grafter says the cambium is a “dark translucent line” (he doesn’t say green). Then if you watch carefully, he follows the cambium with his knife and his knife blade runs just underneath the green bark (I’ve watched it several times. At the top of the cut in the scion, the green tissue is several millimeters thick, and he runs the point of his knife blade underneath that, to show where the cambium is.) Here is the video. The part I’m referring to starts at about 9 minutes in the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ReeuSPGh4
I once asked someone who runs a small nursery this same question years ago, and he told me the cambium is green, but he couldn’t address these surrounding questions. I’m wondering if he just didn’t give me a “stock” answer. Any thoughts?