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  • From: david.maxwell@dal.ca
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] No new growth
  • Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:02:37 -0400

I have been cutting scions for people who have requested grafting material,
and have
become aware of a phenomenon which I did not appreciate until now. I have a
number of
different varieties, grafted to Ottawa-3 rootstocks, most in 2003. Most of
them are around 8
ft. high; some are as much as 12 ft. Now, I have two observations, probably
linked, (but you
tell me!) 1) Trees of Gideon, Lady (pomme d'Api), and a variety collected
from the front yard
of a lady called Sandra, (and hence called "Sandra's Red") have all virtually
ceased making
any vegetative growth. There are masses of fruit spurs, but virtually
nothing which I could cut
for grafting. (One of my fellow afficionados rather rudely says it is
because I "don't fertilize
them", meaning chemical fertilizers. [I do use compost and heavy mulch].)
But other trees of
different varieties next to them have put on growth ranging anywhere from 6
to 18 inches,
suggesting to me that it has more to do with the variety than the growing
conditions. 2) I
have 4 trees of St. Cecilia, ostensibly all on O-3. But one of them has
grown to twice the size
of the other 3. (They are all side-by-side) I suspect that the rootstock of
this one was not in
fact O-3. Of the 4 trees, the 3 smaller ones have very little new growth,
(maybe 3-4"), but the
big one is covered in masses of vegetative growth, easily 18" or more, all
over and in all
directions. (I spent half an hour pruning out all the extra growth, and
ended up with a whole
bag full of scion wood). My interpretation is that the dwarfing effect of
the rootstock is
promoting fruit spur development and suppressing vegetative growth. Is this
reasonable? If I
want to get propagating material, what can I do to trigger new growth? And,
finally, the
Gideon *never* put out much lateral growth, and I have ended up with a 12 ft.
high trunk,
covered in fruit spurs all the way up the trunk, and 2 spindly branches near
the bottom. Is
there any way to provoke it into making some branches now? (I can't even
take budwood
from higher up and bud it into the trunk to try to develop new branches,
because there is no
vegetative growth to bud from...)




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