Hello all,
I’m just wondering if anyone has created a row of trees which will solely be used for Scion wood collection.
Some trees I don’t want to take any wood off after initial shaping until they mature a bit which can leave a bit of a gap in Scion wood collection.
I’m Wonder if anyone has planted trees for this purpose and what spacing you used.
Maybe the trees can be as close as a hedge as fruit is not required.
Best Regards
I think you mean something like a germplasm collection/planting. Probably most if not all species will grow and fruit (a little) in a spacing like 2m x 2m.
I think what you have to keep in mind is that you could grow a high density orchard for scion collection however the maintenance of the orchard is going to be almost the same as for a fruit harvest orchard.
You could remove all the fruit so as to eliminate all the maintenance involved with that. Also that would direct more energy into vegetative growth.
Unless it’s intended to be a major scions production, I think you can probably consolidate many cultivars in the same family onto 1 tree, e.g. a grafted plum/pluots/aprium/etc… This way you don’t have as many trees and can spread them farther apart.
Is your space limited? If not, I’d give each tree 10’ just so I can keep them very separated to maintain good airflow and not make it as easy for pests, fireblight and fungus to spread between them.
If space is tight, I’d think 5 feet would be fine if you are going to keep them aggressively pruned, probably pollarding them to maximize new annual shoots if you are doing this longer term. I would avoid a hedge, unless you are somewhere with low pest and disease pressure, to keep anything from spreading more easily, and I’d prune to keep at least some separation.
Thank you
I am going to start a small nursery but am growing lots of stuff new to my country so I want to try get fruit but also propagate.
So I was thinking of planting extra trees just for propagation.
The only person I know who maintains trees specifically to collect scionwood is Bill Reid with his pecan trees. You can read his blog for some details. He might answer an email if you care to try.
Thank you