Runted out Bud9

General Fruit Growing
#1

I have a couple of Bud9 HoneyCrisp that I don’t like at all. They are very small and FULL of spurs.
They do not seem to put on any new growth. I have to admit that every other year they make a lot of apples for as small as the trees are but I still don’t like them.

Is there anything that I can do to them to get them growing? If not I’ll probably pull them out sometime.

I don’t have to pull them just yet as I have other space to work on and just let them be what they are for now but I’ll want to replace them in the long run.

I did pull all fruit the the first two years on the advice of this forum but it’s still a runt.
Oh well.

#2

HoneyCrisp is a lowish vigor tree. It’s kind of runty on M111. I usually put it on B118 for a semi-Dwarf size tree. Not much you can do on B9 other then knock the blooms off and let it grow this year. I would accept it for what it is and start a new one on a larger size stock. M111 would probably make Dwarf size Honeycrisp if that’s what you want.

#3

I bought a bud9 this year and plan to use it as an interstem. In fact I snipped a couple of inches off and grafted it to a seedling rootstock a week ago. I wonder how much it will slow down the seedling roots

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