Doing something wrong with scions

Both this year and last I attempted rooting M111 cuttings. I had bought them as rootstock, and cut them very close to the crown because I was interstem grafting in a more dwarfing piece. Since they were cut very low there were typically already some small root nodules present. I dipped them in rooting hormone and placed them in coconut coir in a high humidity environment. Last year I had one survive, looks like I’ll get two this year. Out of about ten tries per year.

Since I was cutting off and throwing this part away, I figured “why not give it a try?”. Any one that lives is a free M111 I can graft to in a year or so.

So yeah, rooting apple is certainly possible, I’ve done it. The success rate pales in comparison to grafting though.

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Wendell, I tried the same thing but did not provide ideal conditions. I had root growth on a couple of them but fungus gnats got the best of me. I’ll definitely try this next year along with the stooling beds I set up.

@Pjotter it is possible to root many of the fruits discussed on this forum. Currants, gooseberries blueberries, honeyberries, jostaberries, some bush cherries, jujubes, figs, and yes some apples among others have had success. Many of the people here are truly trying to offer you sound advice based on many years of real world trials and in many cases expertise on the topic on hand. If you stick around and continue to read the forum you will find many helpful answers to just about any question related to fruit you might have.

I recommend learning to graft if you are interested in propagating the fruits you mentioned (apples, pears, peaches) and it will save you a lot of frustration and heartache. Anyone on YouTube telling you they can stick those types of scions in water and get good results is selling hype and being disingenuous.

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Additionally, there is a very important distinction between the word Scion and cutting and there is a reason why some fruits are called cuttings in some fruits are called scions for the terminology that they use.

When I sold scion on eBay many bought them to try and root. Nobody ever got back to me that it worked. I always offered more if they failed. Nobody took me up on that either. I have stuck pruned cuttings in the ground and they always leaf out and never root.
I also have put cuttings in water so that the flower buds open. Just for cut flowers. Here again never any roots. I have rooted willow in water. Works well.
I also have bred stone fruit and have a number of raspberry cultivars I developed. I had Niwot primocane fruiting black raspberry. The summer berries are good but the fall primocane berries were terrible. So I crossed it with Jewel and an Ontario wild cultivated. Both produced primocane fruiting plants so the gene is dominant. The Jewel cross produced excellent primocane berries. It’s fruiting right now. A definite keeper. Berries are massive as big as reds and delicious. I also am trying to make an orange raspberry. So far I only get pinks. Still trying. I also have a yellow black raspberry that I would like to make primocane fruiting yellow. I could not make crosses this year. I will try next year. I agree we have many expieinced people here. I didn’t know apple rootstocks can be rooted albeit a low success rate. Good to know!

I also enjoy growing seeds out and have four seedlings of the red fleshed peach Indian Free. I like Indian Free as a rootstock because it is the easiest peach to graft to. My grafting success rate is close to 90%. It is an heirloom peach grown by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had about 35 cultivars in his orchard. Many were lost to time.
I’m also growing out fig seeds to try and find a new common fig. I have six seedlings with Paradiso as the mother. The pollen donator is known but I can’t recall? I need to write that down. I obtained seeds from Eric who lives in the wasp zone of California.

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Interesting info.
Some succeed with this, so it adds to the confusion.

Could it be the amount of water? If the cutting get enough water, they are not interested in growing roots. Why should they. Most cuttings are short and can suck up water without roots.

Could less water be the trick?

Pjotter,

I do disagree with certain aspects of your messages. True, some cuttings root easily in just water, I have done this with may herbaceous plants. Heck, I’ve even just stuck fig cuttings in moist soil and had them root. Certain plants just want to root.

Apples, for the most part, don’t. Some varieties and rootstocks do, and I have done this with many Mallings and Bud rootstocks. I put them into moist soil and some root and some don’t. However, I have had very limited to no success with many named apple varieties. They simply are not interested in rooting.

I have to question motives to being persistent in your message and posting multiple YouTube videos.
Collectively, there are thousands of years of experience from hundreds of honest, good folks on this forum, and we tend to share honest opinions and evidence. If someone on here, posts something, many folks look at it the way that a good detective does. We take the evidence before us, analyze it, and base our opinion against our knowledge, experience and training.

I would have to say that yes, this method works for certain plants and not for others. I will say that it is not a guaranteed method, and success with many hardwoods will be low to very low.

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I am growing fruit trees for several years in pots in a watering system. (I have no other option). The trees are growing well. Lot of leaves. But fruit result is very limited. This spring my pear trees had a lot of blossom (300-400). But not one became a full pear. I have tried thinning. So something has to change.

They have enough water, nutrition’s, light and warmth. Not going into details, because there are too many things involved. Which species, which nutrition’s, which soil, how much sun. This will be an endless discussion. And there are too many opinions about this.

Youtube is for me a reliable source. Gardeners are not the worst people, most do not ask to subscribe, most do not sell anything and many do not even have advertising. And very often I can see results. I see many trees, large greenhouses, gardens full of fruit trees. I have to believe somebody. Books are also saying different hings. So yes, if I see root development at YouTube, I know it must be possible.

So I am now trying other ways. My trees are all grown on rootstocks. I bought them like this. So now going to try growing cuttings without rootstock. Maybe it is because of my pot system.

I would agree but I haven’t seen any. No videos posted here show root growth on apples pears or peaches. I know I would love to trade rooted cuttings of these plants. I trade rooted figs, currants and other plants all the time. I wish we had a method to root these. I have not seen one yet. We have made strides like using DE to root cuttings that tend to rot. And using foggers as misting devices to root blueberries. My rooted Spartan blueberry is four feet tall and three feet wide. It produces hundreds of blueberries. I try to root various plants all the time. With mulberries, morus alba cultivars really vary in hardiness. We have discovered that the more tropical alba root easily. The more winter hardy the harder to root. Some species will not root. I experimented a little. No luck with the hardy types. The tropical types I had great success. Since hardy rootstock is only three bucks. I graft now. Since I’m in Michigan I need the hardy alba or alba hybrids. I grated all I could get and testing which works best for me.

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