Plan to order some apple root stock and one of the things I hope to be able to do with them is to propagate my own from those I buy. Not a lot on how difficult it is to propagate the different types that I could find. Who has experience with doing this and what type of root stock was it. Was looking at B9 and M7 but not locked into any thing yet.
My M26 have suckered and I’ve separated those for new rootstock. I also have a tall whip leaned over that sent up a bunch of vertical growth. I’ve been meaning to cover the original trunk so those “verticals” that are perpendicular to the trunk can individually root.
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I following this video on YouTube to propagate a B118 and a G202 rootstock. propagating clonal rootstock
These were my 1st year results.
B118
G202
I successful grafted the two B118 rootstocks. I grafted the best G202 rootstock with success and planted the other 3 G202 rootstocks into pots to grow for a year and will graft to them this spring.
The wife wasn’t happy where I had these planted in the garden so I moved them last spring and let them become established last year. This spring I will again cut them off at ground level and add sawdust as they sucker.
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I believe the Cornell rootstocks are still under patent. The English ones obviously are not and are all pretty easy to develop by stooling. Here’s a video that shows a method perfect for a small operation.
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@applenut video is about as clear and concise as you could ask for. I’ve often thought about doing this. Looks very easy to do.
I rooted some dormant B9 cuttings a couple years back, not a very high percentage, but since the material was just rootstock benchgrafting offcuts, nothing lost.
I have read that dormant(or summer?) cuttings are used for pear, they don’t do well in a stoolbed.
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I’m the east coast applenut, if you are talking about the video here.
In Kansas the small pots dry out quickly in summer so I grow rootstocks in the ground or a large contained area in summer. The original roots have more water that way and are deep. Put a half whiskey barrel or 55 gallon drum, large pot or whatever over the new shoots. Time of the year is a factor here so fall, winter , spring are better times to start a project like that because summer is to dry. I’ve used 111 and wild apples for rootstock. One of my favorite tricks is grow a rootstock about 8-10 foot tall and cut it off about a foot from the ground. Put your barrel over the suckers as they come up and fill with dirt. The new rootstocks will grow roots and top growth very quickly. You might grow 10 -15 rootstocks at a time but never lose your original tree so once a year you get new rootstocks. A variation of that method is skip the container and pin the new suckers to the ground with wire bent in a U shape and shovel dirt on the suckers which is known as layering. I know the videos posted use a slightly different method which are excellent approaches. Here is a wild apple that could easily be turned into several rootstocks
These are pear rootstocks grown using the method discussed
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Jesse
That is encouraging about the B9 rootstock. Did you do any thing special with them or did you just put them in the ground?
I have some sort of rootstock growing from the only apple tree that I ever bought (and it died from the graft up) that I recently tried stoolbedding and they ended up looking like your G202’s with just a couple tiny roots. The original tree(that died ) was planted decades ago so I am sure the rootstock that is left is one of the M type rootstocks .
Do plant patents stop you from propagating for your own use or just commercial use?
Any asexual propagation of a patented plant is prohibited (unless licensed to you by the patent holder).
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I is pretty much based on voluntary compliance with home growers, and I suspect the patent holders are mostly concerned about commercial growers- but they still want their commission from every single scion. It’s too bad their isn’t a system where home growers can send them a buck or two for every successful graft. Be good for everybody.
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So does anyone know which apple rootstocks are still under patent? Obviously not the m series. I’m guessing the Geneva series is. What about the b and p series? Others? Is it legal to propogate b9 or p2 without paying royalties?
Does anyone have a favorite non patented rootstock to propogate? I know some are harder to root than others.
I ran across this the other day in the Reference section here. Maybe it will help:
Hey. What do you know. I think g11s patent has expired.
Treco.nu includes in their rootstock descriptions a brief bit about the ease of propagating the variety.
I like Akiva’s method from Twisted Tree Farm. He laid a whole rootstock tree down horizontally and stooled the whole length, turning what would have been branches into rootstocks. I may have to copy him with some mm111:
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I used to look at root suckers as a burden. Something that should be cut off, … Just more work.
Now I see them as a resource ,that maybe more valuable than the fruit crop.
I layer them in these pots, that’s another rows worth, right there !
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I use what I have close.
Many things work.
Wood chip
Sand
Compost
Old potting soil
New potting soil
Good old dirt. !
Any combination s
Usually works…
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