North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

Malus fusca has a very wide range, clear up the west coast pretty close to Alaska.  I'd bet there are forms with more than enough hardiness.  It's a very adaptable species, able to grow along streams where it is in water much of the time.  Dr. M. N. Westwood (Temperate Zone Pomology) rated it as having about the best resistance to fireblight of all apples tested, too.
The snag is that it's graft compatibility seems to vary.  The late Pierre Rotschky in Washington tried a lot of grafts with it and found that it behaved more like it's old name, Pyrus fusca, than Malus.  It helped to use an interstem of Winter Banana when grafting apples on it.  Winter Banana is an interstem that also allows pears to be grafted on apples.  You can make dwarf pears on M26 with a WB interstem.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003. 
For even more grape lessons, go to  http://www.grapeschool.com
For growing supplies and more;  http://www.grapegrowersolutions.com

On Jan 26, 2007, at 7:35 AM, tanis grif wrote:

'Net info suggests these are not hardier than z6.  Does anyone have a few they want
to trial in z5 to 4?


--- BekeeprTop wrote:

> species with best reputation for wet feet toleration:   Malus Fusca of 
> Oregon.
>
> Is there a need/demand for wet-tolerant rootstock?   Yes, apparantly, because 
> some professional researchers have already spent research time looking into 
> Fusca and others....



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