First year seedlings, I would bring them to garage if it gets really cold.
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Very good suggestion. Being in pots makes the rootstock very susceptible to freezing and damage.
As I lay the groundwork for attempting my first apple grafts to an Indian Magic crabapple next Spring, two questions started buzzing in my brain…
1 - Why does no one offer crabapple rootstocks for apple grafting, seeing they have a reputation for better disease resistance than Malus domestica?
2 - Do the rootstock sources use their “secret” names, like M111, B-9 and G.202, to keep the rubes from just growing a named variety, or because those rootstocks on their own bear inferior fruit?
Rick
The rootstocks you mention were developed at different “labs/research centers” for their properties OTHER than the fruit they bear.
At times, I toyed with the idea of letting some set fruit but there are too many proven varieties I like to waste the time
Mike
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I recently recommended Swamp Crabapple for someone growing on wet soil. Here it is offered by Burnt Ridge: Pacific Crabapple | Native Deciduous Trees |-Burnt Ridge Nursery One thing to keep in mind is that these are probably seedlings with uncertain characteristics for the scion growing on top. With clones, you know what you get. I am not aware of any specific variety/clone of crab rootstock.
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Wild Crabapples can influence the fruit of the grafted scion. They have been know to raise the tannin levels of a scion. Your desert apple graft might produce cider apples.
Crabapple (and other) Rootstock’s Influence on Flavor - Cider - Growing Fruit
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i have williams pride , frostbite and sweet 16 grafted on a sargents crab i got as a freebee from Arbor day. all 6 grafts took and grew well. hopefully i get some fruit from it next year. this is the only apple tree that survived growing in level ground here. lost 3 others that couldnt grow into my heavy clay. its was just a twig when i planted it with no care near my well. didnt think it would do well there as its a low spot and only gets 6hrs of sun. its about 6-7ft tall and has excellent branch structure. for a crab its a vigorous grower.
What I find odd after reading the story is if the French figured out that American grape rootstocks worked with their wine grape varieties, why did it take until 1958 for Dr. Konstantin Frank to be the first to successfully grow vinifera vines on native rootstocks in the Eastern United States?
I’m wondering if this Ume fruit (stonefruit) seedling is losing it’s leaves from stress (the soil dried outore than I wanted when I went for a trip) or just because of the season. I brought it in while it still had leaves but if it loses them all I’ll try to do whatever it is that I’m supposed to do for dormancy.
Two questions:
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how can I tell the reason for the leaf loss or rather how can I tell if it’s still alive if it loses them all?
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how can I protect it if it goes dormant and loses leaves. Can I just keep it in the dark, attached garage and periodically check to make sure the soil is keeping the roots moist?
Here’s a pruning question as I think ahead to next spring. I’m going for a delayed open center on my apricots and peaches, and I selected scaffold branches off the whips last spring. For 2 of the trees, that seems to have been the right call, but I may have jumped the gun on this apricot. The tree didn’t grow very much, and one of the branches definitely violates @alan 's 1/3 rule. Also, you can hopefully see the 2nd scaffold up is heading in a sub-optimal direction. I’d been planning on either tying it to a stake in the ground or pruning to a bud facing the right direction. I had disbudded all the bud sites where I didn’t want it to grow, so I’m worried about its ability to resprout. What are my options for correcting this? Should I remove the lower 2 branches and tip the highest one to promote branching? Remove the lower 2 and let it grow for another year? Let it ride and restrict the growth on the largest branch so the main trunk can catch up? Or just remove all three branches and select from what becomes available?
Neither one of your picts are visible. One thing to keep in mind about apricots is they tend to shoot straight up reaching for the sky. Not to much horizontal movement to them.
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Fixed (I hope). Thanks!
So far, I’ve noticed the other tree (Orange Red) behaves as you describe, but this one (Tomcot) seems pretty happy to spread out (more or less, I only got a foot or two of growth from each branch).
Picts fixed. Those are still pretty small. Everyone operates a little different, but I usually like them to settle in a little bit before chopping on them. Most of the time I let them get some size and just cut out the middle. The big branch does look like it may compete for dominance. I’m sure others will offer different advice.
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Which non-astringent persimmon should I choose? I’m flip-flopping between Cardinal, Ichi ki kei jiro (early Jiro), and Matsumoto Wase (early fuyu). I’ve been reading online and in the forum, but I can’t tell if there’s any significant difference in flavor, size, or ease-of-growing between these choices.
The tree is for my mom, who is not much of a gardener, but who absolutely LOVES crunchy persimmons. So, I’m hoping for a tree that is tasty, but also tiny (my mom is 75 and shouldn’t be getting up on ladders to pick fruit), and relatively early ripening since she lives in zone 7A coastal NJ.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
I think the Ichi should fit the bill for all of your requirements. I do not have Ichi to note on taste, but I do not think the non astringents vary in taste all that much. @dpps
I planted my first persimmons this past spring, and chose Matsumoto Wase Fuyu as my first non-astringent Asian. My choice was influenced by the description on the Edible Landscaping website, plus a YouTube video from Heppy that gushed over it. But I am also ordering other non-astringents this year, so I can judge for myself!
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Hello, after a long absence! I love you guys 
I’ve lurked here and there, lol.
I’m seeing a disease problem this year before buds are even breaking! Orange dust on flower buds of my Euro pears. They did have rust on some fruits last year. I do have our native “cedars” nearby.
Do I just spray now? There are no leaves. I’ll definitely spray copper. I’m afraid my pear flowers will be ruined if I don’t know what to spray as they come out of dormancy.
I sprayed these pears twice when I noticed the rusty fruit last year, but that’s too late.
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Welcome back! That Orange dust you describe on pear flowers has been a major problem on many of my pears and I’ve had a hard time controlling it. I’ve been toild it is “Pacific Coast Rust” (in TN!!!), quince rust, cedar-quince-rust, pear rust, etc. But its been a real bear for me. I can tell you that copper alone hasn’t been much help on mine. The best luck I had fighting it was applying Copper during dormancy, then alternating Captan and myclubutanil the whole season about every 2 weeks. Even that didn’t 100% result it, even though this same regiment did stop my cedar-apple-rust. And besides, most people aren’t willing to buy and apply 3 antifungals. SO I’m not 100% sure what the solution is, but I feel your pain. Hopefully others can help more. Good luck…this stuff is hard to control!.
Question re: Chip Budding, Timing, and Temperatures
Hi All, I am going to try my hand at grafting for the first time this spring! I’ll be topworking a callery over to euro pears. I plan to do the topworking via bark grafts in March in zone 7A. Due to the size/shape of the existing tree, I plan to chop the whole tree of at about 5ish feet where there are 2 main trunks about 4" in diameter each, and bark graft 3 or 4 scions to the top of each main trunk. Because I’m new at grafting, I arranged for some extra scions just in case I make a mistake.
My question is about chip-budding. If I don’t make too many mistakes and I have extra scion material after I’m done bark-grafting, can I use the extra scions to chip-bud a little lower down on the callery trunk? I just hate to waste the extra material (assuming I have any). If yes, what is the optimal timing/temperature to do the chip budding? Could I do it in March at the same time as the topworking? Or would I have to wait until it gets warmer out?
Or should I just let the tree focus its energy/nutrients on the bark grafts and skip the chip buds?
Thanks!
Hey Dana! I am just learning myself and will be working on a similar project on a Callery at my office. I chopped it off at about 5’ last year and it sent out a ton of smaller sucker branches I intend to graft over to a couple varieties. I’d recommend waiting until you see buds ready to break (March as you suggested should be fine) and definitely do a bunch of grafts. It’s my understanding you could even try chip budding in the spring along with your other grafts.
What the end objective typically should be (someone can correct me if I’m wrong) is picking the most vigorous single (or a few) grafts even if a bunch take, and trimming the others to allow the tree to focus its energy on the best options for growth. Good luck, and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work out well the first time. Make sure your knife is sharp and use some good tape to graft. Put up a stick taller than your graft right beside it for the birds to land on so they don’t snap off your graft.