I'm in general agreement with Sherwin Dubren's comments on Mark and Bud-9
rootstocks. I'm very sorry to hear Mark is unavailable at present. My Mark
trees were benchgrafted (thanks Greg!) and planted here in nursery beds in
1994-1996 timeframe, then moved to final spots a year or two later. (It was
the hot rootstock at the time.) To my eyes, these trees are still doing quite
well. Trees on Bud-9, most purchased as finished trees, look good too. I have
some problems with suckering on Mark, and a little on Bud-9. My soil is heavy
clay with a lot of preparation. Trees are under 100% irrigation and fully
supported on a trellis. There is fireblight pressure here, but I have not
noticed a lot of fireblight trouble with the rootstocks themselves. For trees
heavily involved with fireblight in the scion variety on top, I discard
entire trees and don't try to save the rootstock. A few trees started
elsewhere on Ott-3 are also doing noticeably well here, but Ott-3 is
difficult to impossible to use for benchgrafts because roots on stooled
rootstock starts are scant; Ott-3 needs to grow for a year before survivors
are grafted.
Pete Tallman
Longmont, CO zone 5 or so
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