North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Bradley <kbradley@ttlc.net>]

One of the biggest advantages of using interstem trees is that you can 
choose the ideal rootstock, say, 111 for dry soil, and still have an early 
bearing dwarf tree. If you planted your trees directly on a dwarf stock it 
would not be nearly as drought tough as 111 or as able to deal with neglect.
One of the major disadvantages of growing dwarf trees is their need for 
extra care whereas standards and 111 are very tolerant of neglect and can 
be planted out on the back 40 and still fend off the elements of weeds and 
drought. Interstems can also be planted in such conditions and I suspect, 
survive even better under some circumstances  than standards since they 
don't have as much of a canopy to feed  as a standard.