I’m beginning a backyard orchard on P22 / M27 (apples), Pyrodwarf (pears), Krymsk 1 (plums, apricots, peaches), and Gisela 5 (cherries). Would be interested in learning from other people’s experiences with these rootstocks. I’m aware of Gene Yale’s super dwarf backyard apple orchard outside of Chicago and am basically looking to do the same thing he did except with a broader variety of fruits and rootstocks.
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I grow cherries, and dwarf is relative to species. Dwarf for cherries is 12 feet. These trees grow to 40 feet or so. So 1/4 size is certainly dwarf. I use the KGB pruning method with Gisela rootstocks, but any method works. I’m trying to keep it at 8 feet. It requires pruning a couple times a year. Gisela 3 would have been more dwarfing.
Plum and apricots too, tend to grow crazy on any rootstock. But it can be kept small all of them, with pruning 3 or 4 times a year.
Though not super dwarf, I have 7 apples (mostly crabs) on interstem combinations of M27/M111 and Bud9/M111 depending on the expected vigor of the scion. They are along my front walk on my small, 9000 sqft suburban lot, 3 on one side and 4 on the other.
Expected vigor definitely plays a big roll, since my Callaway crab on M111/Bud9 looks like it will never get over 6 feet tall, maybe not even 5, while the Wickson on M111/M27 is already pushing 7 feet. I only used the M111/Bud9 for varieties that should stay smaller like Centennial, Callaway and Kerr crabapples to try to help them keep up with the others. I intend to keep them summer pruned to about 7 feet tall at the most. They are planted 2 feet apart and I’m planning to train them along the lines of free standing spindles.
I wanted small trees and even though the M111 part of the interstem will make them tend to get a bit bigger than just the dwarf stocks, I wanted the benefits of having them be free standing, but more importantly I didn’t want to worry about them dying on me from lack of water if I’m away during the summer. Basically I wanted baby trees I didn’t have to baby.
They were grafted and planted in a shady nursery bed in 2015, moved to their current location in Spring 2016 and most are showing a good number of buds this year, although I think they’ve all been zapped by the cold. I was planning to pinch off any fruit that formed (well, maybe leave one or 2) so they didn’t runt out before developing more branches.
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It is amazing what you can do with apples. Very cool.
Drew,
I was unaware of the KGB Method and assumed it involved throwing a bucket of acid or dioxin in the tree’s face. I just read up on it and am impressed. I’m going to be adding 4 cherry trees to the backyard orchard (2 BlackPearl and 2 EbonyPearl) and think Gisela 5 and that KGB Method are the way to go. Thanks for mentioning it.
JG
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Zendog,
What kind of spacing are you using with your interstems? Do you feel they have enough space for all of the fruit to properly ripen? Also, what kind of crop are you expecting from each tree annually? 1/2 bushel? More?
JG
I have them spaced 2 feet apart and then they are on either side of a walkway, so maybe 5 feet between what I’d loosely call rows. To ripen properly, I’ll need to keep the laterals short, making them a little bit like rows of cordons, not full trees. So based on that, and the fact that all but one Goldrush are edible crabs, not full sized apples, I can’t really say what my expected yields are until the trees full develop. I might someday get a half bushel from each if I’m lucky, but with late freezes getting buds/flowers and various blights, bugs and beasts, I have decided that predicting yields is a sure road to disappointment.
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Drew, do you know where Gisela 3 root stock is available? I’ve tried a few sources but no luck. As a retired small grower of dwarf apples, peaches and hoping cherries needall the help I can get. Thanks
No, sorry. Probably only commercial sources are out there.
NJ_Bill,
If these folks won’t sell you a few Gisela 3, they can probably refer you to one of the folks whom they supplied with larger quantities of the rootstock:
JG
Ha! KGB method – How Putin likes his apples… good stuff.
I need to take a picture down a few blocks. There is a house in my neighborhood that has an apple tree in their front yard that isn’t over 4.5’ tall. It totally perplexed me because most nurseries around here sell semi-dwarf (M7?) and standard (M111). Then one day on a walk back from the park with my son, I made the connection between the Gurney’s staking product and the Lil Big trees on M27. I think this tree still has one of those stakes at the base.
The owners of said tree have grass growing right up to the trunk. It is leaning, and we have deer that should think it is a very well placed snack, at perfect zero effort snacking height. But the last 3 years we have lived here, the tree has produced what looks to be about a 1/2 bushel of fruit.
My point is, even in a place of somewhat neglect it is pretty amazing what you could get out of a super-dwarf tree.
calamondins make pretty mini-trees, and the fragrance of blossoms is hard to beat! Also seems as cold-hardy as trifoliates, but so much neater in appearance, due to the tiny and densely-packed foliage.
while below is a link(to another link)depicting jujube ‘dwarfs’(induced), growing them like tomatoes 
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I know you said you are aware of Gene’s orchard, but I thought I’d post the section MidFEx’s site has on him-complete with lots of photos. I’ve been admiring it for years. It also has his favorite fruits and so on. It’s one of the most amazing back yard orchard’s I’ve ever seen. This guy had 97 apple trees (178 varieties including grafts) in a backyard that was 2,500 sq ft!!! That is 100 trees in space 100 foot wide and 250 long (though his isn’t a uniform square).That’s just a regular back yard in a city. So anyone interested in producing a lot of fruit and varieties in a tiny space via true dwarf trees should go see this. It also makes me understand your interest in “super” dwarfs.This site is a few years old, recent reports are that he has about 100 trees and 197 varieties including grafts (source: @TheCidery)
http://www.midfex.org/App_Pages/Yale/intro.aspx
(Edit to change my post to say 178 varieties, not trees. Tree count was 97 last I heard. THanks, @TheCidery)
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I saw a recent video of his yard and he’s up to 178 varieties, not 178 trees though. It appears that many of his super dwarfs were replaced by slightly larger trees that have been top-worked to accommodate a number of varieties per tree. It’s very impressive though. The man is absolutely meticulous.
JG
I believe the key is to fully develop the scaffolding before you ever allow the tree to fruit, much like Gene Yale did here.
JG
When done properly, you can end up with something like this:
Note though that this second photo isn’t solely on M27, but rather on a more vigorous M27 / MM111 interstem.
JG
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You’ll find the video clip of his current orchard here:
Pretty comical that he’s not particularly fond of eating them.
JG
I saw that video too, in the link posted above who talks about his favorites though. Seems earlier in his life he enjoyed eating them. He is either sick of apples by now or trolling the tv guy!
Some of us old gezzers don’t digest fruit sugars anything like we used to. So it becomes sort of like beans. The worst for me are pears and figs. High brix stone fruit follows those. Berries and citrus are easier to digest and lower in sugar.
Enjoy your fruit while you can…!!
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