North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Cooper" <jcooper@lewiston.k12.id.us>]

Donna,
Do you know of a rootstock that is not damaged by Voles? My cousin has a
100 tree new orchard that has problems with the roots disappearing. Do
you have any suggestions? Please.
Thanks
Jim
N. Idaho
Zone 6

>>> redherring@tnaccess.com 01/25/06 7:52 PM >>>
Dr. Parmer,  
Maybe it would be good to choose a rootstock that comes fairly uniform
from seed.  There is one used for the north in the US, 'Beautiful
Arcade'.  I have been buying a seedling rootstock called 'Micromalus". 
It is thought to be a cross of M. spectibilis and baccata.  It grows
about 10 ft tall and wide, and is much less tasty to field mice than
most apples.  The nice thing is that if you could locate a source of
seeds, you would have much less trouble with quarantine, as there would
be no dirty roots to worry about.  One warning about Micromalus, I find
that about 10-20% of the Micromalus seedlings have deformed leaves,  and
those trees never grow.  I don't know if it is a virus, better find that
out, or if there is some kind of genetic problem with a certain % of
seedlings, like for example with seedlings of Citrus trifoliata, 'Flying
Dragon'.  There is very little info on the Net about Micromalus, but
where you can find such info, I would ask the writer about this problem
with some of the seedlings.  Mine came from Lawyers Nursery, they might
know about the problem.  
    Is anyone else familiar with micromalus?  Have you noticed the
plants with the deformed leaves and poor vigor?  They are quite
different from the healthy seedlings.  Donna