I was wondering if members could share there experince with B118 rootstock. I have been working with it for a couple years and like what I see so far. It is more vigorous than M111 and I never tire of seeing the red wood when grafting. I am looking for an alternitive to M111 for low vigour varieties and very poor rock / clay soil that is common here. I have heard that it may actually produce fruit sooner than M111. There is conflicting information about how large of trees b118 produce anywere from 70% to 100% of standard seedling.
I’ve got wickson on 118, third leaf, one is 10’ the other 8’. In the best soil I have w/o fertilizer, grew 3-4’ last year. On a yellow, heavy clay, 3rd leaf, 1/4 cup osmocote tree fert at planting, grew 3-4’ last year. Seems to be more upright and narrower crotches than g935 or g202. None of the trees had major disease problems and they survived some good windstorms. Rubiayat and Venus de muscat from Greenmantle also had the same growth patterns, somewhat tall and narrow. All if the trees have fruit spurs on them now but still dormant.
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We graft roughly half of the trees we sell on B118, most of the remainder on M111. Advantages very cold hardy, does very well in sandy soil, vigorous, seems to be precocious. Disadvantages are it tends to sucker a bit more than M111 in my opinion, does not do as well as M111 in heavy soil, is not recommended as a root stock for vigorous scion varieties (over produces wood) unless on poor soil. I have seen the same conflicting information on final tree size.
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I am thinking of giving this a try. I am also interested in Renatka. Any updates on your experience with it?