North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

I think that these old trees were often grafted low and planted with the 
graft below ground level. The top would scion root and they didn't have 
to worry about whether the rootstock would suit for hardiness or 
whatever. There was a period when nurseries would buy cheap rootstocks 
grown from seed from cider makers in Normandy, which might have been 
thought unreliable, especially for coldhardiness.

Sometimes a tree would be topworked on a strong, or vigourous, or 
disease-resistant (collar rot?) or hardy framework. I think Tolman Sweet 
was often used for this. I believe Esopus Spitzenburg was thought 
cnaker-prone and Mother was considered a slow grower, so they may have 
been candidates for topworking.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


On 14/02/2011 11:08 PM, Alan Yelvington wrote:
> I live in NW PA and there are abandoned family orchards all over the
> place. People tell me that the tree's a Northern Spy or whatever; Some
> of these trees are OLD standard trees, but I never see a graft union on
> the trunks. Do the grafts eventually disappear, or did the scion take
> over and the tree "go standard" on them?
>
> Al Yelvington
> Russell, PA