North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["loneroc" <loneroc@mwt.net>]

Kevin and others who graft onto Prunus americana,

 

I have a number of Japanese-American hybrid plums on P. americana, and naturally have suckers popping up everywhere, often in beds 20-30 feet or more away from the trees.  They seem to pull up fairly easily--at least the 'sucker' pulls away from the root below, but then usually resprouts from the same spot.  I'll often get half a dozen or more from a spot at once.  So far, other than being a never-ending chore, I've been able to chalk this up to garden maintenance, although occasionally one will escape notice amongst the blueberries until it's a bit too woody to pull easily and must be pruned out.

 

Is any one aware of a chemical solution to the problem?  Perhaps there is an herbicide that would "burn" the sucker and slow down or prevent the regeneration?  I also have to prune suckers on a couple of apple trees on M7.  Is there a solution for both Prunus and Malus?  Interestingly enough, I have a Ribston Pippin, purportedly on M7, that never suckers.  Perhaps it's because the Ribston is planted a bit deeper.  Maybe if I mounded dirt up on the other M7's that would help.  I haven't done so thus far because I figured that once the suckers have started they'll keep doing so as if they were in a stooling bed.  When I cut them off now they are often rooted.  Too bad I don't want anything else on M7!  Mounding soil wouldn't help on the plums anyway, and their wide- ranging suckers are far more annoying.  (I can see the future of the garden without my care.  In 5 years it'd be a gigantic plum thicket.)

 

Sincerely,

 

Steve Herje, Lone Rock, WI   USDA zone 3

 

P.S.  The Ribston Pippin is bearing dozens of apples after about 15 years in the ground.  Although I got it from Southmeadow, it appears correctly labeled---at least the fruit is shaped right.  It has borne full bloom the past two or three years but not set fruit before.  I'm not sure if the problem was pollination, or as I theorized, that the ovary was damaged in bud from winter cold.  If I'm lucky, the tree is now mature and I'll get fruit henceforth.

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Kevin Bradley

To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 8:12 AM

Subject: [NAFEX] RE: Topworking

Dave, from MN wrote:

I think the main benefit from having a hardy understock for a
tender
tree
> is induction of early dormancy of the cultivar by the rootstock.

I have never seen a rootstock induce early growth in its grafted  cultivar and so perhaps falsely assumed that it would not induce early dormancy. I will check this this fall on my topgrafted peaches on p americana compared to those on maheleb.
I have seen a ranetka sucker break bud under a dormant Sweet 16 that broke bud exactly the same time as those grafted on antonovka that is, about 10 days later on average. In other words, the rootstock had absolutely no influence on the bud break of the cultivar.
I am nearly convinced that the main advantage to topworking is the "tender crotch/trunk" theory, that is that the weak links in deep winter cold endurance are the crotches and trunks and not the outer branches. I don't think I buy the "inducement" theory (of inducing hardiness from hardy frames to tender grafts.)
There were some recent experements on this but very poorly conducted planned and inconclusive in my opinion.
I speak, BTW, not as a plant physiologist but as an amateur who reads a lot on this subject and who makes observations in the nursery.

---

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