Nursery and Stoolbed Spacing

[Barndog56]

I’m planting about 50 apple grafts into a nursery tomorrow, where they will grow for one year. How much room do I need to give for each tree?

Also, I have 10 extra rootstocks to plant that I will use as a stoolbed for growing my own rootstocks. They are B118 and M111. How much space do they need?

My first year grafting so don’t want to screw them up. Lol

[AndySmith]

I’m planting out approx. 600+ grafted rootstocks with 12" spacing (a 35’ x 35’ bed with approx. 25’ x 25’ planted). They’ll be planted out in an orchard next spring. In my stooling bed I have allowed 2-3’ between trees.

[Barndog56]

Thanks!

[Luongo43]

Looking to start a stooling bed, do you guys have any pictures or steps how you did it? Did you plant the rootstock? Or grow it out and put a bucket around?

[AndySmith]

I planted my root stocks out in a bed to let them get established. I initially had a problem with deer mowing them off. They’re fenced now, and finally starting to show some vigor. I’ll probably mulch this bed again this year and then determine next spring if I want to begin lopping off the trees to prompt new shoots. Then it’s a matter of waiting for them to get some height and I’ll probably use buckets and sawdust for root formation. This prior post shows my stool bed before I fenced it in with the veggie garden - post #29 in this thread: Stool Beds