We live in southern MN in USDA zone 4 and will be harvesting our first substantial apple and plum crop this fall. Most of our apple trees were planted in 1999 and are on seedling rootstock, with a few on M.111 and a handful on fancy modern P.2 and G.16.
I grew up a few miles away where my Dad had a handful of apple and plum trees. Because of problems with longevity of the dwarf trees he planted, we chose seedling rootstock. Dad had lost trees to wind damage and cold over the years. I'm finding that the trees on seedling rootstock have far superior anchorage, and additional vigor to recover from mechanical damage and disease.
Our 49 trees are a mixture of apples, pears, cherries, and plums.
I'd like to invite anyone in zone 3 or 4 to share their fruit growing experiences with an eye towards hardiness, reliability of crop production, and fruit quality.
There is a 20 year old document written by Cathy Wright testing the various rootstocks in a few locations in Alaska. Pure siberian apple (m. bacatta) seems to come out on top when it comes to cold hardiness. I loaded the doc to an online format just because some might not read it in the other format;
[url:lmmys76i]http://home.comcast.net/~hollaus/Greens/hardy-apple-stocks/C-Wright.htm[/url:lmmys76i]
Baccata and Ranetka seem to be the choices for Zone 2 and portions of Zone 1, corroborating what Cathy Wright wrote.
There's a guy in Wisconsin who's been selling fruit trees grafted on Baccata and Rantka roots: http://www.edibleforestnursery.com/Avai ... kIndex.htm
In Zone 4 in Minnesota, we can use most of the usual apple rootstocks except M.9. There's reliable enough snow cover that root damage due to cold is rare. There are a number of commercial orchards, but none of the major grocery store varieties will grow reliably.
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