This was on the bottom of a lowes honeycrisp tree. Who says big box stores don’t label rootstock. Lol
1 Like
Good idea Appleseed, I will try that next time i see a tree I might be interested in.
What does the tag read speedster? It looks like M-106? That’s what my honeycrisp is on. To answer your question “who says BB stores don’t label their rootstock”…well…I do. That clearly isn’t a BB store label, that is from the nursery that supplies them…and a great find speedster.
That just furthers the mystery of why they don’t label them. Certainly no shame or need to hide the fact that it’s on 106, so for pete’s sake why don’t they label it?
I suspect they don’t label them because their purchasing agreements are basically “run of field” to keep the costs low. By that, I mean maybe the supplier can insert any rootstock into the sale as long as they are willing to maintain the warranty and provide at least healthy looking trees. That’s the only explanation I can think of.
For all the bashing some of us (myself included) do about the BB stores…all things considered for the average American homeowner in all settings (urban small yard / rural larger) , fast to bearing, vigor control, various soil types etc; M106 I think is the perfect all-around selection for semi-dwarf Honeycrisp. In other words, maybe Lowe’s deserves some credit for doing a little homework.
So speedster…was it a nice tree and did you purchase it?
Yes Appleseed, the label says “Honeycrisp / EMLA-106”.
I uploaded the photo from my phone and didn’t realize the text was illegible. You are correct in that Lowes definitely did not put that label on the tree. It is a remnant from the orchard supplier. As you said, I’m guessing that when the trees are pulled at the orchard they make no effort to retain the label or discard it. If the label doesn’t fall off then it’s a bonus. I noticed the red tag on a couple of other trees as well. On one tree it was barely visible and was completely covered in mulch. When I pulled the tag out from under the mulch I could barely read the worn out text. I could make out 106 but that was it. I’m guessing that it is the common rootstock used for their semi-dwarf apples. in my region.
The trees looked fine. Pretty good branching structure. Still totally dormant. They were $24 and were all around 3/4" caliper. I didn’t purchase it but I may get one next week after my Raintree order arrives depending on how they look. This particular Lowes had a little better selection than the other Lowes in town. They had Honeycrisp, Gravestine, Yellow Delicious, Jonagold, and McIntosh apples. Bing, Van, North Star, and Montmorancy cherries. And about 4 types of peaches and 4 types of plums which I know very little about.
So that’s more semi standard than semi dwarf. Which is what the Lowes around here says their Apple trees are. Sucks if you plant them to close.
Depends on whose description of 106 you subscribe to. For example, two separate sheets list 106 as 50%, and another at 80% and yet the source was the same in both (Cornell). The same two sources list 111 at 75% the other at 85%.
To me, I’d say 106 lies somewhere in between those two figures, but closer to 50.
It is a true semi-dwarf, so I think their tag is accurate.
I find 106 to be similar to 111 but earlier fruiting. M7 is a step down and I think of it to be 50% of standard.
Just an update my local southern states just received their fruit trees for the spring and they look really good and healthy. Large caliper and some interesting varieties. One of the intriguing varieties was Black York cherry from Cornell U. I wouldn’t mind trying that one. And Korean Giant Asian pear.
All of there trees were $29.99 with the majority of them coming from VA. I also noticed a few peach trees with Dave Wilson labels.
Yeah…their trees are usually super high quality. Even better than at regular nurseries. Worth the extra money imo.
Speedster, where are getting these trees from?
It was from an orchard in Virginia. I want to say it started with an H or a V. I’m in WV so basically right next door. Can’t remember the name but I can stop by tomorrow and write it down. Very nice looking trees.
Sounds like a real nice resource. I thought at first you were talking about a big box.
Southern States Co-Op agricultural supply. Don’t they have these up your way Alan?
Probably not in the great southern state of NY. 
Here we have Agway, which can carry some fruit trees but not generally the selection you are getting. They tend to do a better job than the big boxes, though.
They have lots of them in the great southern states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
NY locations are:
Bronx, NY
Flushing, NY
Upper Montclair, NJ
Passaic, NJ
Franklin, NJ
Well it is not a surprise they have them in Maryland since MD has always been considered to be in the uppermost part of the south. 
1 Like
Uppermost part of the south or lowermost part of the north? 
1 Like
I define southern states by their commitment to the confederacy. By this definition Maryland was more northern than southern, apparently.
Sorry to break up the kidding, but the question got me googling out of curiosity.
For some reason, instead of posting my link this site posted the first paragraph of the link which goes on to say that 2/3rds of recruits joined the Union army in Maryland.
All of my cousins are in Maryland and PA , it may be a certain part of PA? They all said I sounded Canadian. All had strong southern accents. I reminded them that everybody on TV sounds like me, and we are Americans. I have a Midwestern accent. I didn’t get any response. I said “hey” and that is why they thought I sounded Canadian. I told them the difference. I said “Hey, How you doing?” If I was Canadian I would have said, “How you dong Eh?” Well at least in MI we use hey more to start a phrase, and in Canada more to end a phrase. Here we often use hey in place of hi, or hello. Accents are funny, I remember meeting some people from Long Island, and i said Oh you guys are from NY? They corrected me and said “no Long Island”, but asked how I could tell? Ha!