I grafted winter banana to several apples this year, including native malus fusca Oregon crabapple. I want to use winter banana as an interstem, including for some pears. Joanie just mentioned using comice pear as an interstem with quince.
What is the length of interstem that you would recommend? I want to make sure it's long enough to change characteristics, but not too long to have mostly that fruit instead of the intended. Does the length of interstem affect dwarfing characteristics?
Thanks
john S
PDX OR
If you are just using the Winter Banana as an interstem, it only has to be long enough to have something to graft to. An inch would do it, just to have a place to bud the top variety.
If you use an interstem for dwarfing, longer will give you more effect. A foot of M9 at the top of 3 to 4 feet of a standard rootstock will dwarf the fruiting variety almost as much as grafting on straight M9 stock, but you'll have a tree with much better anchorage that doesn't need staking.