North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

Oh, yes; I can definitely think of good reasons for people to be working on 
this.

I was just puzzled by the article's being so written as to give the 
impression that they think dwarf fruit trees, in general, are a new idea. I 
very much doubt that the researchers themselves think this; it's most likely 
a problem in the reporting.



-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale


On Aug 19, 2014, at 3:15 PM, Geoffrey Tolle wrote:

> Another point would be that our dwarfing rootstock is very limited 
> genetically. There are many fruit varieties but much more limited rootstock 
> varieties. If (when) something shows up to take out one rootstock, then it 
> could take years for the industry to recover from the loss of that 
> rootstock. Having another source of dwarf trees only makes good ecological 
> sense.
> 
>                                                                             
>   Geoffrey Tolle
> 
> On Aug 19, 2014, at 12:37 PM, Brungardt, Sam (MPCA) 
> <sam.brungardt@state.mn.us> wrote:
> 
>> Good point, Bob and Idell.  I don't have a decent solution for selling the 
>> trees as are the club apples.  Maybe a night visit to one of those compact 
>> tree orchards at full bloom to collect pollen?  
>> 
>> Still, I'd like to think some of the selections might end up being 
>> propagated and sold by the nursery industry.  Seems like no rootstock is 
>> very successful for peaches, and this development (compact trees on their 
>> own roots, if that's what it is) would fill both commercial and amateur 
>> growers' needs. -- Sam
>