North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

Group:
When stooling a grafted tree, placing the tree in the ground deep-enough so 
that the graft union is a few inches underground, is it absolutely necessary 
to apply a restrictive ring (i.e. coper wire) around base of the grafted 
scion, just above the graft-union, so that the scion roots and/or the initial 
rootstocks root-system doesn't out-compete the root-stem that would form from 
the scion.
I've buried the graft-unions of various stone-fruits on non-dwarfing, generic 
or un-ideal rootstocks, flowering & kousa dogwood to avoid just another point 
of entry for borers: the graft-union, and a black mulberry (M. nigra) grafted 
upon a Russian mulberry (M. alba var. tatarica) for post-winter re-sprouting 
when necessary. 
Thanks,
Steve