Hi-
I was wondering if anyone has had experience with G214? Either you have bought trees on it or have grafted trees on G214.
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Guys I decided to bump this.
I don’t have experience with it but I found an NC-140 study below that includes G.214. Under discussion is trunk size, #fruit, fruit weight, yield, #suckers.
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Sounds like none of us have tried G214
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(I desire a caliper larger than my thumb…so far in 5 or 6 seasons, I’ve got zero Geneva rootstock to get there. But, I do have 12 or 13 G210 on order. I’ll try one more of their roots.)
What is you soil like?
Me?
There’s a bit of everything in my vicinity…literally. One geological formation just 15 miles from my place is some of the oldest in the USA. There’s acidic eastern coalfields…only one big hill north of my property has coal, again I am on the edge. 300 feet elevation change and the pH goes to ideal for alfalfa, but I have sourwood, sassafras, mountain laurel and low huckleberries and a couple feral native blueberries on my place.
At my other location I have high clay content in the Bluegrass region of the state…but again, slight elevation change and it’s all different.
Hmm, Ive got loamy sand as deep as I can dig, water table is deep. pH 5. Low calcium, but broadcast some lime granules a few years ago after getting those results. NY 6a. Ive got Harrison, Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet and Topaz on G.890. Grimes Golden and Sundance on G969. All are 5 yearsold and over an inch diameter, minus the Sundance, which is a year behind.
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What are your best performing rootstocks in your locations?
Everything has pros and cons. I rather like seedling rootstocks. On poor soil they make a 20 or 25 foot tree capable of actually supplying some apples for the root cellar.
But, of all the Geneva and Budagovsky stuff I’ve tried, so far B-10 impresses me. But, it’s too early…you need a couple decades of testing to learn all the things to make the judgment you’re asking.
Sounds like M106EMLA might be good for you. And the Geneva roots are doing OK for you.
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Your soil (if amended, limed, fertilized, etc.) should be ideal for apples. Plus for many other plants. Only place I might find that is in a creek/river bottom that floods regularly.
Yeah, if the site is challenging, the full vigor of a seedling could be the way to go, especially if you could grow them out for a few years to see what is best adapted to your conditions. Have you ever tried antonkova or something like a P.18 rootstock? Maybe do a seedling/dwarfing stock interstem to have robust roots, but get back some precocity?
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Yes, I have purchased some Antonovka at least 4 times over the years, got 20 at a discounted price from Fedco last spring due to being mixed sizes (that I loved).
I also purchased about 20 seedlings one time. And I have grafted to 2 or 3 of my seedlings.
I’ll be having many more in coming years, as I save my red flesh crosses and use the seedlings not exhibiting signs of red pigment for rootstocks.
This year I have on order B-10, M106 and G210 rootstocks. Plus have several seedlings and numerous multi-graft additions I plan to make. Some of the B10 may be too thin and I may need to delay a year in using some of them.
Still, I’m sure I’ll do over 100 grafts again this spring if I am able, and probably try some more budding in the summer as I have little experience at that.
Sounds like youll be busy this spring! Thats the great thing about this hobby, basically unlimited new things to try.
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Actually I’ve been busy 5 or 6 consecutive springs…75 to 167 grafts annually.
77% the poorest take, and about 94 the best.
Haven’t collected any scions yet…and nobody has sent me any. But, in 15 to 45 days I’ll probably have a refrigerator full of scions. My collecting, plus some I’ll be expecting in the mail. 
I’ll also be starting 5 more apple “frankentrees”.
I’ve just bench grafted 17 bare root G.214 with a few different varieties, it’s my first time grafting but felt pretty good. I figured I’d hop on here to share my experiences presuming they take. 
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Early days of course but this week (Apr 3rd) I potted up the bench grafts I did on Feb 28th.
17 of these were G214 and the remaining 3 were M116 - I posted the pictures over in the 2024 Spring Grafting Thread (for some reason struggling to upload right now - will try again later).
This was my first time grafting, with dormant scions harvested in late October and kept in the fridge, rootstock was also dormant.
All three M116 took, and I think 16 out of 17 G214 took. (There’s one scion that looks a bit dehydrated compared to the others, so pretty sure that’ll be a fail, but I’ll give it a week outside just in case.)
The G214 seemed a bit more keen to put out shoots as I started to warm them up, but aside from that I can’t see any early difference between uptake, root development, etc between the two rootstocks, with of course the caveat of a very small data pool. The three varieties I grafted into M116 I also grafted onto G214, and scion vigor very much seems equal from cultivar to cultivar (rather than based on rootstock).
If anyone’s interested, I’ll update again on how these do through the year. 
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I am like @fruitbat: I grafted 50 from Copenhaven farms 1/2” and they are doing well. (Cleft grafts)
I even took 15 discarded tops and rooted them with hormone and put in potting soil on a heating mat and they are leafing out (not sure yet about roots) I did bump one by accident and it looked like it had small roots, so encouraging
The thing about G214s from what I’ve read is that they have brittle roots and need to be staked so the wind doesn’t break them or the graft union. To get around this, some use m111 (much bigger root system) then graft a G214 inter stem to keep dwarf size and graft the scion on the g214 inter stem (so more expensive and more complicated and still needs to be staked for the G214 scion graft union) but I don’t mind staking just g214.
We shall see.
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