North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

As a nurseryman who markets in bearing age fruit trees I strongly favor
M111 rootstocks.  I am also a dry tree farmer with a sandy silt soil that
doesn't hold a lot of water, but my trees go into a vast range of soils
where I often end up managing them for the homeowners that hire me.

The first thing I'd like to add to this discussion is that rootstock is no
more important than the variety grafted to it in the relative performance
and vigor of the whole tree.  The second thing is, if you know how to prune
(not easy to learn), and otherwise tend your trees, any rootstock can
provide you with more fruit than you know what to do with if you are
growing reasonably productive varieties.   Relative productivity of
rootstocks is only an important issue, in my opinion,  for commercial
growers where a 10% difference might be the difference between bankruptcy
and keeping the farm.

As far as vigor and precocity, a Goldrush on 111 will likely have less
vigor and bear sooner than a N. Spy or Mutsu on M 26.  The point is, you
don't just match the rootstock to the orchard site- just as important to
match it to the variety.  The Goldrush will also be less complicated to
prune.

Any thing smaller than M7 will be more attractive to voles, likely require
irrigation and staking, no matter what you graft it to.  It will also be
hard to keep the crop above the deer browse line.  Even M7 is pretty woozy
on windy soils and/or soils that get very wet in early spring or fall and
blows over a lot if not staked.  Usually this happens to my trees the first
year it carries a heavy crop between year 5 and 7.  Some varieties seem
much more susceptible to this problem than others- I've never had a N. Spy
blow over, maybe because the root system is so well established by the time
it bears heavy crops.

If you live in an area without a lot of lethal fire blight (excepting some
newer Cornell varieties, I guess), plan to irrigate, are not bothered by
squirrels, deer or other wildlife, and don't mind supporting the trees, M26
or smaller may work well for you.  Your trees will be much easier both
physically and strategically to prune and spray, you will get more fruit
sooner, more varieties in less space without grafting or buying multiple
variety trees.

If you have raccoons, squirrels or deer in the picture, a long straight
trunk before first branches allows baffles to be attached to it to stop
climbers and obviously can keep fruit out of the reach of deer.