North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Erdman, James" <ErdmanJ@uwstout.edu>]

The apple rootstocks had little root (which I wasn’t surprised at), and when the tops died, and I dumped out the pots, the roots looked like they hadn’t done anything since planting.  My potting soil came from Vermont Compost company (picked it up at the organic farming conference).  The potted ones were in the shade on the north side of the house, shaded from maybe 9am to 3 or 4pm.

Someone mentioned viruses in the scions.  I used scion wood from at least 3 friends, from a person on this list, and from my own trees, and I wouldn’t have expected all of these to have the same kind of problem transmitted through scionwood .

 

 

Thanks for any ideas.

 

Jim

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Donna &/or Kieran
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 3:02 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] grafting questions

 

I got some rootstocks this year that had been undercut for summer budding.  I don't know how there was enough root to keep the top alive.  Could it be that Jim's apple rootstock plants were big enough to push growth, but too short on roots to keep going once it got hot and dry?  If they have enough roots and lose the graft, they should come up from the roots.  To die completely -  "the roots looked pathetic" - do you mean they looked sick and dead, or there was only a little bit of root?  Ohhhhh.... where did your potting soil come from?  Anything from under a walnut tree or any old sawdust that might have come from a walnut?  We've talked about walnuts before here.    Donna