North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

The description sounds like something attacked the roots.  I have lost potted vines and trees to phytopthera at times, as  well as root weevils.  The latter are sneaky as it only takes one grub in a pot to strip all the roots.  You might not even know there is anything wrong  until the plant fails to leaf out.  Then you find that the part below ground is a bare, barkless stick.
-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 all other things grape,   http://www.vitisearch.com

On Apr 22, 2008, at 8:33 AM, tanis cuff wrote:


Cummins is good.  I've shared bundles w/ other NAFEXrs, rootstocks shipped 1/2 way cross country and still grow fine.  

I'm puzzled by how the grafts could grow into whips and not die til June, if the problem was bad rootstock material.  I've seen potted trees w/ damaged/destroyed roots leaf out in the spring, but die pretty soon.  I think a better bet for trouble-shooting is to look at what happened on-site.