North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sarah Kehler Ewing <skkewing@yahoo.com>]

Apparently Malus ranetka are hard to find in Canada this year, but maybe you 
will have luck buying them from Lawyer Nursery in Montana.  A bunch of us 
Canadians bought seeds/rootstock from them in years past and have been very 
pleased with them.

I have a question about them as rootstocks.  A local friend of mine told me 
that ranetka seem to grow their grafts faster than Siberian Crab (which is 
the other locally popular full sized tree rs for apples).  For him, grafts on 
ranetka were the same size after 2 years as three year old grafts on Siberian 
rootstock.  Then I talked to a rootstock grower (Mosterman's in B.C.) and she 
told me that ranetka rootstocks took longer to get to the graftable size so 
maybe the reason grafts on ranetka grow faster is because the rootstock is 
older/has more roots.  So I'm wondering if the ranetka rootstocks would keep 
up the rapid growth of the grafts or if they would slow down to match the 
pace of the Siberian's once they 'caught up' to their roots???  Anyone know 
what they look like in 10-15 years as compared to Siberians?

Not to discourage you from grafting onto ranetka, so far I've quite liked 
them.

Sarah 
zone 3
Edmonton, AB


--- On Sun, 4/24/11, Chris Garriss <cgarriss@garriss.net> wrote:

> From: Chris Garriss <cgarriss@garriss.net>
> Subject: [NAFEX] Malian ranetka
> To: "Nafex" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Received: Sunday, April 24, 2011, 10:48 PM
> Years (many years) ago I'd purchased
> M. ranetka from Bear Creek Nursery.
> Although where I planted did not require such a cold hardy
> rootstock
> (western Maryland & NC mountains), the people at Bear
> Creek suggested I try
> them - and gave me a good price.  They did far better
> than I had expected.
> Bear Creek has long since disappeared - I heard it had been
> razed and the
> property become some kind of campground.
> 
> I'd like to find a source for a few (5 or so) ranetka, but
> cannot readily
> locate a source.   Any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks.
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