North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

What is your preferred dwarfing/semi-dwarfing rootstock for sweet cherry in the mid east cost (zones 5-7), good fertile soil, moist but good drainage)?

Factors: Vigor restriction; disease resistance; drought-tollerance; longevity; cost/availability, etc.  I'm particularly interest in Prunus mugus which is being researched at East Malling; it is a shrub Prunus indigenous to China. Cuttings can be easily rooted.  Any one know much about this - I have a very good feeling about this one, but I think it will not be able to handle too much moisture in the soil, as it is a xerophitic plant in the wild.

Options: P. mahaleb (C. mahaleb); 'Colt'; 'Mazzard'; Prunus mugus; 'Krymsk' (I would personally avoid this one since I don't want to deal with bacterial canker and longevity is one of my key interests); Dave Wilson Nursery's 'Zee' inter-stem; Maxim, etc..

In my particular case, I'm looking for a tree with some dwarfing and great longevity; I'd say that the life-span and health of the tree means more to me then productivity, early-fruiting, etc.  I wouldn't want any of the Gisella series since you cannot obtain (retail) the rootstocks to do your own grafting, so a rootstock which isn't Gisella.  I suspect that most will recommend 'Colt' in this case.

Thanks,

Steve