North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[David Doud <doudone@netusa1.net>]

with apples (and perhaps other species?) there is great variation  
from variety to variety vis-a-vis the relative development of buds  
from the base of the stick to the terminal - observation of the  
behavior of 2 and 3 year old wood will show that some varieties  
develop fruiting spurs on the two year old wood toward the terminal  
end - these varieties tend to be the large growing, leggy, pendulous  
types, with lots of 'blind' wood, ex. Northern Spy - - while others  
develop those fruiting spurs close to the base of last years growth -  
generally these are better behaved varieties such as Golden Delicious -

another consideration is that 'watersprouts' are sometimes collected  
as scionwood - sometimes this is the only vigorous wood on the tree -  
but watersprouts by their nature have a lot of 'blind' wood and  
undeveloped buds - a stick containing the terminal will grow off  
readily - a stick from near the base? maybe not satisfactory -

in regards to the potted grafts dying - I have bench grafted  
literally thousands of apple and pear trees and grown them off in one  
gallon pots for summer planting - I have never had trees get 6-9" of  
growth and then die - some may not grow at all, some may push out a  
leaf or two and collapse, but if they get going, they are good till  
the wildlife gets them or the nurseryman takes a vacation - so I'd  
judge something strange went on in regards all dying after getting  
off to a good start - bad/over fertilizer? - dried out? (they get  
about 18" of growth and somedays they need watered twice... -

dunno - but the strategy of bench grafting and growing in pots for  
summer planting is a sound one -

good luck with the next batch -
D