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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Mockernut as a rootstock?

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: longdistshtr@infomail.net, North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Mockernut as a rootstock?
  • Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 20:23:24 -0500

At 07:51 PM 5/8/2003 -0400, you wrote:
Anyone know whether Mockernut (Carya tomentosa/C. alba) can be used as a
rootstock for anything? I have several but never seen a nut on them.
I'm guessing that Shagbark and other hickories and maybe even pecan
could.

Doc,
Donna and I have discussed this topic among ourselves from time to time.
Graft compatibilities within the genus Carya are not all that well worked out.
I think that there are probably different geographic 'races' of the various hickory species, that have varying degrees of compatability.
I've got a copy of a paper by Gilbert Smith, from the 1949 NNGA meeting, in which he detailed his experiences topworking native hickories in CT & NY to named shagbark, shellbark, and hican selections. Bitternut hickory worked well for him, but around here, it does not work well as an understock for pecan or shagbark - though 'GreenRiverpecan is compatible with it, and I suppose, could be used as an interstem. Smith did have success with 'Fox' shagbark on mockernut rootstock. All other selections he tried on mockernut and pignut failed to survive for any significant time.
My own early experiments, trying to foster pecan & hickory grafts onto mockernut, pignut, and bitternut seedlings in the edge of the woods, were not unlike what he described: they often 'took' , grew well during that initial year, then failed to leaf out the next spring.
Since that time I've grown plenty of northern pecan seedlings and use them exclusively as rootstocks for other pecan and hickory cultivars.

Don't guess it would hurt anything to try some pecan & hickory cultivars on your local seedlings just to see if they'd survive.
I've still got some dormant-collected scionwood from a few shagbark, northern pecan, and a good shellbark - if you want to try 'em, email me and I'll get 'em out in the mail to you pronto.

Lucky





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