Please explain what you mean: "a grafted plant will be at least a year ahead of a rooted cutting in development". Then you state: "The root stock does not affect the growth of the scion". Doesn't the very fact that it is a year ahead indicate that the growth of the scion was affected? I apologize for my confusion. Maybe its just too early in the AM and the fact that I have to fast before my back is injected today.
By the way, every single graft of those seed-pod bearing plants failed. There were five of them. As you remember, it was recommended to do this last October/November. Neither the root-stock nor the scion rotted though. The scions did dehydrate. I'm now rooting those scions. I have a feeling I will lose all or most of them, but I had plenty of those cuttings besides the seed-pot ones.