3 years ago i planted a green gage on an unknown rootstock from StarkBros… ( i wont lie its been the fastest growing and quickest recovering fruit tree ive grown so far. )
but i watered heavy with rooting hormone powder for the first 2 months, and one day a root sprouted out 3 inches through the rodent guard… so i buried it because it was facing south to south west and the wind blows the hardest from the southwest… i figured it would give the tree better stability.
is this exposed root okay? do i risk disease in the future underneath the raised root? should i cover in rooting hormone powder next spring and slightly bury?
@Bogovich My understanding is that you do not want to bury the root flare. My thought it is to leave the tree as is and that it probably is not great or needed to bury the raised root in your picture. I am not an expert, so I wonder if others think differently.
Sounds like a vigorous rootstock doing exactly what it wants to do. Myrobalan is common from StarkBros and it can throw roots up pretty aggressively in the right conditions. I’d leave it be rather than try to bury or remove it, it’ll settle down as the tree matures. The fast recovery and growth you’re seeing is actually a good sign with those.
thanks. I rinse off dirt and mulch from the gap after i water the plum in fear that it might cause some sort of rot on the the underside of the root, like crown rot or something, i know most plum rootstocks arent really susceptable to crown rot… i also know its a root and roots are meant to be wet and damp… but idk, i just wanted to make sure im in the clear with this so 5 years from now I don’t look down and theres a big oozing black spot coming from this base of my plum tree lol. i saw that on my stanley and immediately replaced it with toka plum, then grafted bluebyrd plum to all the top growth of the green gage.
i want to hate on starkbros because they refuse to give out rootstock info… but when they label a tree premium/top tier quality, they really mean it and it’s worth the extra money. This tree is exceptionally awesome.
