Nursery Bed Goals, Usage and Questions

General Fruit Growing
1

I’d like to create a nursery bed so I can:

  1. Plant backup benchgrafts for < 1 year in case a primary benchgraft fails
  2. Plant backup benchgrafts for 2-4 years in case an older tree dies or gets culled
  3. Let purchased rootstocks size up for a year before grafting in year 2 and moving in year 3
  4. Start my own rootstocks from seeds

My questions:

  1. What fruit trees do or don’t handle the move from nursery to permanent spot okay? My guesses:
  • Okay: peach, apple, apricot, pear, plum, cherry, nectarine
  • Not the best: paw paw and persimmon

  1. I assume that moving a small tree sets it back a year or two versus one that you’ve left in place?

  2. Would I have greater tree survival by letting the rootstock establish for a year, then field grafting year 2, then moving the third?
    My benchgrafts start out great (80% success) but then kind of die out as the summer progresses (20% survive) - happened with both B9 and G214 in the ground (B118 in pots with poor soil did great). I wonder if I’m too vigilante about pinching off rootstock growth and the roots don’t get enough nutrients?

  3. The spot is a narrow rectangle that runs N-S. I assume I should use long N-S rows?

  • For short-term benchgrafts - 12" spacing between trees?
  • For 2-4 year growth - 24" spacing?
  • For seed rootstock - plant seeds 2-3" and then thin to 12" spacing?

And maybe 24" spacing between rows?

Thanks for any comments - that’s a lot of questions.

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2

I will try to answer a couple of questions.

North-South rows would be best both because of the land layout and the fact that North-South rows use sunlight more effectively and allow smaller row to row spacing at least for orchards. In the nursery it probably won’t make a large difference either way.

Scions grafted on dwarfing rootstocks have much lower vigor. They need more help in the beginning to thrive. If the grafts are taking and then dying later I would suspect the issue is more likely to be tied to water and nutrients. Also dwarf trees can’t compete with grass and weeds so the area around the base needs to be free of them and it helps to mulch it to keep them at bay. You can let the rootstock establish for a year and then field graft it… it may increase the survival rate. Also leaving some “nurse leaves” on the rootstock could help especially if the area of the successful graft is small.

I would personally use 36" spacing between rows for the nursery. It would make it easier to get to the trees and make it less likely you would damage your new trees when your working on trees, cutting grafting tape, digging the trees up to transfer to main orchard, etc. For spacing between trees in the nursery 12-24 inch spacing should be fine. This will depend on rootstock vigor and how long you leave them in the nursery. Dwarfs would be fine for a couple years at 12 inch spacing. For higher vigor trees like B118 if you plan to keep them in the nursery for more than a year I would consider 24" spacing.

Your plan for seed rootstock should be fine. Although if your growing season is short you might want to start the seeds indoors early in the year to allow them to get more growth before the winter. However, I think just buying rootstock makes more sense because of the time involved and the cost of the roostock is low. Unless it’s a rootstock that isn’t readily available commercially.

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