Just took out some potted baby Amelanchier from their winter hide under a pile of leaves. Three of them had all the lower bark eaten by our neighbor rodents, leaving dead stumps but living, though a bit dry tops. Is there a possibility of these tops doing all right on any Sorbus? I have Mountain Ash and Sorbus Intermedia (Swedish Whitebeam?) growing around the garden. I mean to use the tops as scionwood, grafting them to Sorbus rootstock. Has anyone experimented with this? From what I’ve read, the other way around seems to work, at least using Amelanchier as a dwarfing rootstock for pear?
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certinly worth a test.
Did you give it a try? I’m thinking of trying this as well, but I have a mature pollarded Sorbus aucuparia and two young Amelanchier alnifolia bushes (cultivars Sleyt and Martin). It would be quite a Frankenstein creation if it works (but I like experimenting).
you could use a scion as a bridge graft from the roots to the top. Bypassing the rodent damage. Or dig up/cut off some roots and graft those roots directly onto the scion. This way your grafting Amelanchier to Amelanchier so 100% compatible.
although experimenting with grafting on other species would certainly be cool. and if you do so. please keep us up to date.
Theyll send up plenty of new stems though, no? Fun experiment, but the longer term advantage is lost on me. Oh, except it seems the whitebeam is endemic and already growing. That would make sense. If it works, let us know! If not, dont sweat those Amelanchiers, they almost all root sucker like crazy