North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

I received the following letter and am passing it along to the list in hopes there are people who could help Mr. Stewart,  Please send your replies directly to him, at  "J. Ryan Stewart" <rstewart@uiuc.edu>


Begin forwarded message:

From: "J. Ryan Stewart" <rstewart@uiuc.edu>
Date: January 12, 2006 1:55:37 PM PST
To: lonrom@bunchgrapes.com
Subject: Question about grafting material

... I've since graduated from Iowa State and was fortunate to land a
position at the University of Illinois.  We moved here in August and have really
enjoyed it so far.

I'm responsible for teaching plant propagation, which I'm really looking forward
to (my "maiden voyage" will be this coming fall).  I don't have much grafting
experience, though, and I've been trying to gather information to be up to
speed.  I would also like to start practicing on live plant material.  Do you
possibly know of any fruit tree nurseries (that sell either common or rare
species) that might be willing to donate some material?  My budget's a bit
tight, but I'd really like to provide my students with some high-quality
instruction.  One thing that I'm excited about is that a propagator friend of
mine in Fort Collins, CO is sending me some cuttings of a Johnny Appleseed tree
he's grown from a cutting.  I plan to use them in my class to help the kids
connect with both horticulture and our heritage.

And do you know of any good books on grafting and propagation?  I have the
standard textbooks, but I think that sometimes people in the trade have more
wisdom about certain subjects than the academics :).

Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Ryan Stewart

Ryan Stewart
Assistant Professor of Horticultural Ecophysiology
1011 Plant Sciences Laboratory MC-634
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1201 South Dorner Drive
Urbana, Illinois 61801

Phone: 217-265-5461
Fax: 217-244-3469
Websites: 
http://ecohort.nres.uiuc.edu
http://www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/stewart_jr.html