That’s just it; whether the tree is 2 months old or 200 years old, the cuttings are taken from this season’s growth, which is immature. If this induced early bearing, the industry would have adapted it long ago.
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so i guess we both agree that hypothetically: if the clone was taken from an already fruit-bearing stem, that it will bear way sooner grafted to a certain rootstock than if the same cultivar-clone was taken from a 2 month old seedling grafted to the same rootstock.
No, as the rootstock is what pushes the tree to maturity. You also need to be picky about what part of the tree you try to induce growth from, and apples are pretty fussy. New growth meristem is the typical, you can’t just get a piece of hardwood or even cambium and expect to multiply it from that. TC in apples is limited to virus indexing for establishment of virus-free mother blocks and rootstocks that don’t do well in the stoolbed. I did apple TC for one year and gave up as it was just too labor intensive; you’d have to do it on a large scale to be profitable.
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i guess we do disagree. My take on this is that while i agree that the type of rootstock can help accelerate inducing maturity on the budwood, the age/maturity of the budwood itself is actually much more critical than the rootstock it will be grafted to. I mean, wouldn’t a hypothetical budwood from a 2 month old apple seedling take so much longer(from grafting to actual fruiting) even if grafted to the best maturity-inducing rootstock? Compared to using budwood from itself 6 years later and grafting to the same type of rootstock?
i agree, and will post my sources when i find them, but it has been observed that generally speaking, tissues nearest the fruiting stems are most optimal for precocity(if grown for budwood, but least optimal for growing on its own roots) , while tissues most proximal to the roots are the least optimal for precocity when used as budwood, but most optimal for growing on own roots. Thus said, the most precocious parts may be precocious if grafted to good rootstock, but may not necessarily be if grown on its own roots, relatively speaking
No. Fruiting is the same whether the budwood came from an established Scionwood block like the below at Dave Wilson nursery, or from this season’s growth from first year potted trees at my nursery. The same scions grafted to Bud. 9 will bear the next season (the first chance they have after forming fruit buds) but will be delayed until 3-4 years on M111 rootstock. Anna and Dorset Golden varieties are the exception, they will bear heavily the second year even on seedling rootstock.
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but @applenut, i was talking about budwood from a 2 month old seedling vs budwood from same cultivar that is already fruiting, and all in relative terms as the hypothetical scenarios i have been bringing up. Anyway, it is all good, perhaps i wasn’t elaborating on it well.
i apologize for the repetitive roundabouts