North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <doreenh@ticon.net>]

Yesterday, I visited Gene Yale in Skokie, IL and saw his miniature apple
orchard.  He has 165 tiny trees on a lot that is 43 feet by 55 feet.  He
uses M27 and P22 rootstock for his trees and has an exacting pruning regime
for 2 years that creates a bearing tree in the third year that is about 3 to
6 feet tall and no wider.  The fruit is full size, and each tree bears 20 to
40 apples.  This orchard is totally amazing.  I shot photos in a driving
rain yesterday and hope to share them later on the Nafex site.

You can see his orchard now and read about his techniques at:
http://www.enteract.com/~midfex/yale/intro.html

Do any of you have experience with M27, P22 or Bud-9 rootstock on apples?  I
was so blown away by this orchard that I am ordering trees custom-grafted
from Big Horse Creek Farms and Bay Laurel to plant.  I have a small suburban
lot and figured I didn't have the room for apples.

Any discussion about the merits and drawbacks of various super-dwarfing
rootstock would be interesting.  What say you all?
Doreen Howard