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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] scion rooting

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  • From: nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] scion rooting
  • Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:11:48 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

A neighbor down the road put in 25 heritage apple cultivars a few years ago grafted on MM111.  He intentionally set the graft about 5 inches below grade to get full size trees.  While most scions have self -rooted it is clear that a couple have not.

Jim Nottke - Z7 NC


-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Haigh
Sent: Apr 22, 2009 6:12 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] scion rooting

As I was examining some root growth today off of some seedling apple trees I started thinking about the issue of scion rooting off of too deep planted trees.  In Harold Tukey's book "Dwarfed Fruit Trees" he wrote something that I found very surprising and that was that the vast majority of apple varieties to not tend to dedifferentiate cell structure to where root primordia will form from non-root tissue.  In other words- planting apples below the graft rarely leads to a loss of dwarfing from the rootstock as a result of scion rooting.
 
This contradicts so much of what I've read over the years but Harold Tukey was clearly well qualified to make his statement and wouldn't have done so if he wasn't quite sure it was valid.  I have seen at least one fairly large commercial orchard where many of the M7 and 106 trees were planted below the graft union to no apparent negative affect- 13 foot spacing between trees- 20 ft between rows.
 
Thought I'd throw this out there to open a discussion.  I know some varieties of apples easily root out from scion wood such as Northern Spy which create root primordia all over the branches but I was wondering if others have observed scion rooting as being extremely common.
 
He also stated in this book that early American pear growers outside of Boston used to make quince work in their cold climate as a rootstock for pear by planting it deep enough to be insulated from winter cold.  Another case where scion rooting was apparently not a problem.

Jim Nottke
Pfafftown, NC



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