My G 30’s bear fruit in three, sometimes two years (after topworking 7 year old G30’s) if I pull scaffolds horizontal or just above.
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That’s a bit different. I can get fruit in 16 months by overhauling tops of some trees.
But, my G30 just made a tall plant and little branching. Be looking for bloom buds next visit to orchard…be a first if there are any.
I have some third leaf B118 and some G890 that I think have a bud or three. Red fleshed apples.
My stats are better for G890 than G11 or M111. I do have questions about the ‘free standing’ part…time’ll tell.
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Do you still have them staked? Do the G890’s ever get to be freestanding without being staked?
I ordered one tree on the G890 for this year to try out.
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Does it look like this?
My G.890s overall looked pretty good on arrival. Most of the trees I have on it are actually outperforming the stuff I have on M.111. I had Stayman on M.111 and it put on maybe 4 inches of growth three years in a row so I dug it out this year, expecting to see vole damage. None, just a root system that should have been way bigger.
Odds are MM106, mm111 or possibly m7…Freedom is in Tennessee.
I have a Karmjn de Sonneville on G41, that i believe i planted in April 2019. The part above the graft looks nice, although I’d hoped i might get a blossom or two this year. But it is developing an enormous, ugly graft scar. Basically, the rootstock is perhaps an inch or more wider than the scion, and then there’s a large bulge at the actual graft point. I’m worried that it’s not well attached, in addition to being ugly.
By the way, this gave us one fruit last year. It’s right next to the Karmjn, with similar conditions.
And
I grafted a large twig of Ashmeads Kernel to this, spring 2021. (After losing a prior graft to rabbits.)
It’s leaning a bit, and the root stock broke dormancy and is in full leaf while the scion is still just unfurling baby leaves, but the both the graft and the scion look pretty good right now. I guess we’ll see how it’s doing in a few more years.
(It’s now very well caged, but it might be time to stake the thing.)
I wish I knew this information before I ordered a tree on the G 890 rootstock. I just planted it yesterday. I will see what happens with this one. 
I still have some beautiful trees on G890 which were grown by Cummins (not me lol) but I think there’s better options out there.
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I have a Niedzwetzkyana apple on G890…grafted March 2020…it has a couple apples set on it. About 50 inches in height…in a 2 gallon pot.
That’s my first G-890 to fruit. Most didn’t bloom third leaf. (But nor did third leaf G30 or G202 of G222 either.) I do have a third leaf B-9 and a third leaf G41 that are carrying crops…I’ll have to thin to just 3 or 4 fruits.
And – by way of comparison – I have a couple M111 trees that have no blooms year 7.
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What rootstocks do you consider better options? I am looking for ones that stay about 12’± or less.
WOW, year 7 and still no blooms? All my M111 were blooming at year 4, at least. I had some nice apples on my Northern Spy at year 4. The rest on M111 were blooming and producing fruit by year 4-5. I am not sure why your M111 have not produced any blooms yet. The M111 , for me, have been the better rootstocks over the Geneva varieties. I have one G 202 that has been very good and the apple tree has produced a LOT of fruit every year since it started blooming. Yet I have another G202 about 30 feet away and is a runt and produces maybe 6 pieces of fruit a year. It is loaded with blooms right now. I will see what amount of fruit I get off of it this year. If another miserable amount fruit is produced that tree will out next year.
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Here’s a few
G969
M26
MM106
M111
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TY for your advice and recommendations.
I had thought about the M26 or MM106 in the past but had no references of anyone who actually used them.
Are each one of the choices able to be freestanding enough not to have to be permanently supported?
Just the MM106 but in the right soil and shelter from wind I bet the M26 would stand on its own. It crops heavy which makes it top heavy.
I have a friend with yarlington mill, Dabinette, and porters perfection on M26, and they’re beautiful trees that crop heavy which he has individually staked and planted 10x20’
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a local u-pick uses a lot of m26 with a trellis but the trellis is pretty much just for training. this is one of the most popular rootstocks in the willamette valley because it’s precocious and crops well and can make a pedestrian tree and we don’t need the disease resistance of newer rootstocks. they do m26 on about 8-10x20 depending on variety and the trees grow into each other to make a hedge. it’s the main rootstock I’m grafting to this year
That was my experience with M111, too. After that, i literally beat the tree, having read somewhere that trees sometimes react to minor damage by deciding it’s time to fruit. And it did bloom the next year. One tree, might be coincidence.
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I read that a few [laces as well. That was what they used to do many years ago. That or digging around the tree trunk to cut some of the roots. Forcing the tree to produce fruit thinking it is going to die.