North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

Group:
Would it be a good, or at least acceptable, plant to steep the graft-union of 
dwarf strains of plum (i.e. European plum cv. 'Mt. Royal') or dwarf strains 
of sour cherry (i.e. 'North Star')?
Pros:
1. No 'unsightly' graft-union (the least of the benefits), so that the 
rootsystem on up is all contiguously the same material
2. No risk of future graft-rejection due to graft-incompatibiltiy or an 
improperly rendered grafting job
3. No risk of the scion over-growing the under-stock (for dwarf strains that, 
yet, less dwarfed then the under-stock)
4. No graft-union into which borers would, otherwise, aim to enter the tree 
(the most signficant benefit)
Potential Cons:
1. The specially developed rootstock, in some cases, is specially selected 
(i.e. P. mahaleb, etc.) or bred (i.e. Krymsk series, etc.) for its resistance 
to soil-bourne pathogens and soil conditions; the variety itself (scion) may 
not have the same disease resistance or soil-condition suitability as the 
selected understock had, before being buried and succeeded over by the roots 
of the scion, after steeping.
2. The scion may not put forth roots before the now buried rootstock rots 
away.
In my situation:
A. I'd like to get my 'North Star' sour cherry on its own roots so that, in 
the future, the base of the trunk (being on P. mahaleb) doesn't form a big 
bulge as it will do; since 'North Star' is a true dwarf variety, the P. 
mahaleb will not confer any (further) dwarfing - my guess it that it might 
even add a little size, if anything.  I'd love the tree to sucker, if that's 
what would happen on its own roots.  I'm not one to train a Magnolia into a 
single-trunk specimen, etc.
B.  I'd like to get my European plum cv. 'President' since it's already a 
semi-dwarf and since the scion is highly black-knot resistant, and the 
under-stock - although rarely effected by the disease, may or may not be.
C. I'd like to get my flowering dogwood on its own roots since the 
graft-union is highly subject to infiltration by borers.
Thanks,
Steve
New Jersey