North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["HDessureault" <inter.verbis@atreide.net>]

Hi Chris,
You have not indicated your climate zone, so it is difficult to comment on 
your question.

The M111 characteristics, beside 2/3 standard, are a good adaptation to sandy 
and dry conditions, as well as hardiness.

It is believed that in my zone 3-4, M111 does not attain 2/3 standard size, 
so there would be no reasons to interstem with M9. (I am presuming you used 
M9 to reduce the size.) This is what the books recommend, and I think it 
would apply to a zone 6-7.
You also have to consider hardiness, while M111 is very hardy, M9 is not. 
From the point of view of hardiness, M9 would be the weak link, but maybe 
M111 would impart more hardiness to M9, if the interstem was not too long...
The final size of a tree on M111 depends on the climate and the varieties of 
apple grafted. To give you an example, after five years on M111, some of my 
trees are twice the size of their neighbours and it seems to be mainly due to 
the variety grafted from the point of view of the hardiness and the vigour of 
the variety. My worst case of nanism is a Norland (not vigorous but very 
hardy) grafted on M111 which flowered last year and is barely 3 feet high (at 
4 years growth) (Norland is a variety that is said to be small and I cannot 
find anything wrong with the tree except that it is awfully small) while my 
best case of vigour is almost 8 feet (at 5 years growth).
Small trees are popular nowadays because the trees are easier to take care of 
and the fruits easier to pick.
But most of all, you want the trees to grow and I was force to come to the 
realization in zone 3-4 that larger trees are better than none.
Hypothetically, if M111 is under M9 and M9 is allowed to root (planted under 
ground level), the characteristics of M111 (hardiness and good production in 
dry conditions) would not be loss, of course, but would complement the M9 
characteristics in a complex manner which is hard to predict.... 
I would plant the interstem union M111-M9 below ground level with some M9 out 
of the ground and the variety above, but not too far.
Good luck,
Hélène



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