I obviously don’t know the extent of your neurological condition, but there is a tool which could take someone who only has the ability to sqeeze a pliers stapler, into a proficient grafter. When I say proficient, I mean really good.
When I first started grafting, I read all kinds of stuff that it takes a really sharp knife, and high level of skill, some people never get it, etc.
I guess I was one of those people because I could never make super straight grafting cuts, and never could get the “tongue” in the right place for a whip and tongue graft.
I eventually gave up on whip and tongue and just did whip grafts, which worked pretty good for apples and pears.
Then a member of this forum stumbled across the Zenport grafting tool. It cuts the correct angle graft for you. All you have to do is squeeze the plier like device. You could use two hands to squeeze the device, if need be.
I mention this because so many people through the years thought grafting was too complicated, and they wouldn’t ever really need to do it. But I’ve noticed just about all those folks eventually try grafting, then they are hooked.
It can be actually fun to see your grafts “take”.
If you think about it, it almost has the flavor of a children’s fantasy story - Jack’s plum tree was almost dead, but since it had magic, he took a stick from it, whittled the end and stuck it on another very small tree. And it came to life and grew, becoming his same old friend.
Not only can it be thrilling as you first begin, it also has a lot of practical application. A lot of people on the forum trade scionwood, so they can try all kinds of different varieties they may not be able to easily obtain from nurseries. You are probably aware the forum has a section for scionwood exchanges.
There were some minor problems with the Zenport, but not everyone had problems with it. I was one of the few who had a problem with the one I bought. But I fixed it. They are relatively inexpensive. Amazon currently has it for about 62 bucks with free shipping, but I see it as cheap as $34 on the internet.
There are lots of threads about the Zenport grafting tool on the forum, but here is one where the occasional defect is discussed. You’ll see my fix is rather elaborate, but just ignore that. Instead, pay attention to danchappell’s comments. I thought he had a good fix and much easier, in case someone has problems with a Zenport grafting tool.
In regards to your original question. Although you’ve already heard all the opinions, I prefer the MM111 over the others mentioned. Most of my semi-dwarf apples are on the virus free version of MM111, noted as ELMA111.
They are free standing immediately in my orchard. I don’t recall every staking any of them. We get lots of wind here.
I’ve not had the greatest luck with M7. We had some young trees simply snap off at the graft union. But again really windy conditions here.
There is absolutely no problem keeping MM111 trees at pedestrian height. We have very fertile soil here. MM111 trees are never more vigorous than peach trees, and generally much much less.
I even have several apple trees on standard roots. I keep those pruned so they can be picked standing on the ground, with no picking pole. A couple in my yard, Fuji and Enterprise, each produced about 400 lbs. of apples this year.
Here’s a pic from this season of part of the fruit off the Fuji and a very small part of the fruit off Enterprise from my yard.
