Hello,
Has anyone here ever purchased a tree or trees just to be a donor? By that I mean let’s say you really want a honeycrisp, but you want it on specifically G.935, but can never find it or get to it in time So you buy one on sme random standard rootstock for example, then buy some 935 rootstocks to graft the tree onto the rootstock you really want?
Is that crazy? Has anyone ever done this?
Or have I officially gone off the deep end???
seemns more effecient to just buy rootstock and then scion wood
I’ve done it. Sometimes trees are cheaper than rootstock.
I agree. Some, like drippin’ honey pear, this is not possible as far as I can find…
Do you have any scion sites that you’ve had good experience with?
(its a bit early for scionwood but they’ll come in stock later i believe)
Check out all these sources people have suggested
@39thparallel also has scion (but listed as Honey Asian, I believe)
Thank you. Apparently I needed to dig deeper.
yeah i mean if its truely cheaper why not. i just think thats a rare situation
Yeah, I was thinking that too on pricing as the shipping from a lot of sites is high, even when you buy say two scions, you’ll likely pay more for shipping, and close to the price of a tree.
But I’m going to dig deeper on the scions, thank you.
Not only does @39thparallel have Drippin Honey (called Honey Asian on his site, same thing) he also does custom bench grafts.
So If you want X scion wood grafted to Y root stock, and he has both in stock, you just add each to your cart and buy a custom bench graft, and voilla, you have your custom tree
I did this for 3 custom grafted trees from him last year. Korean Giant on OHxF333, Honey Asian on OHxF333, Ayers on Provence Quince.
I have 5 more on order from him right now, all pears on Provence quince.
I think I paid like $135 in freight for 175 rootstocks from Washington State to South Georgia.
This year I am planning to order another 175 at a minimum. Including 25 G.935 to interstem on P.18. Which leaves us vulnerable to WAA. But WAA is easily controlled.
To tangent for a moment. How are you liking 333 rootstock? I was steering away because in terms of fireblight and pear decline, several online nurseries told me 97 is the way to go…
And thank you for the help.
I bought a Frost pear tree for a friend just so I could cut a few scions from it. (Friend was supposed to pay me back half but never did!)
Only one year and it is going just fine. I won’t see production for another 2 years at least.
I needed dwarfing rootstock for my Euro and Asian pears, and Quince for compatible euros and OHxF333 for Asians was recommended by @scottfsmith who is about 25 miles from my location.
From everything I’ve read fire blight tends to spread down from the blossom tips into the central leader, so fire blight resistance in the rootstock isn’t a main concern. while, sure, you could get the bacteria in a wound from a string trimmer, or if the rootstock sprouts branches that you don’t cut out, or if it actually did spread down from a bud on the scion wood all the way down the trunk and into the rootstock, you could end up with a dead tree. From everything I’ve read here, getting highly resistant scion wood, being aware of what is going on in your trees, and pruning out fire blight, seems to work well for most.
As far as I am aware, OHxF333 is resistant to pear decline.
I am particularly susceptible to analysis paralysis and I find rootstock selection maddening. I looked at apple rootstocks a few times and I got so confused by all the conflicting data I almost got sick to my stomach. Luckily I don’t like apples that much, and my jujubes are a decent substitute.
I think the best bet is to take info from sources you trust and then just taking a leap of faith on something rather than waiting forever for the right thing. just my 2 cents anyway.
If you want to go with OHxF97 and you trust the sources telling you to do that, go for it.
For some reason OhxF333 and 87 is what is most available. Both are fine. Though keep vigorous scions off of 333 is the often advice
I am going to plant out a few BA-29C Quince rootstocks just to grow out and test on. I really wish Quince Elaine would become commercially available. The USA licensee aparently fell through I guess.
Some varieties are “controlled” and scionwood is not publicly available. But the rootstock that they sell it on, may not work for your region. So you buy a tree and graft it on the rootstock that you actually want. If you try ordering Citrus budwood from CCCP for example, once you add up phyto certs and shipping, you can find some varieties cheaper just by buying the tree…
This is exactly how I felt looking at everything related to apples. Completely overwhelming. I’m glad someone else felt the same.
I decided I’d wait and deal with my apple trees last!
Well that is like WAA. For some it is a hair on fire deal breaker. But if your growing practices already reduce aphids to no real threat; it becomes a non issue.
Albeit in my case I get plenty of time to walk daily to monitor it closely. So it may not be someone else’s reality.
There really is no perfect root stock or varieties. Just pick what fits your case best.
Well, I’d do it if I was into that sort of thing, without blinking an eye. And I have bought a few donor trees in the past for other purposes. I bought them for testing guerilla gardening or more specifically guerilla tree growing. I planted them in the wild and all of them were shredded by deer and died. But this was back around '08 when trees were 40% less than they are now. So, $35 for a big 7-foot COOP apple or apricot tree was not that bad for experimentation. I was hoping for the prospects of planting 25 fruit trees in the wild if they had worked.
Maybe someone younger or broke would think differently with experimenting like that. But I’m old. So, when I think about whether I should buy something or not; it usually is decided by these questions.
Do I have the $ to buy it?
If so, should I skip buying it and just leave the money for someone else to spend for me when I die?
I see a lot of nurseries not using the 333 rootstock for some reason.