Sorry to inundate you all with so many questions!
I have a spot in my yard that I've been thinking about putting an apple tree in, that is very wet at certain times of the year. The section where I'm planting it is not waterlogged, but it's about 8 feet away from a spot that sometimes gets standing water during when it rains a lot. So the ground there can get quite saturated.
So, my question: what rootstock would be most appropriate for this area? Is this in fact a bad idea?
And in the more out there department: I've heard of people using a Pacific Crab Apple as the rootstock for boggy areas like this. I'm sure this is fairly experimental, but has anyone here had any experience with doing this? The Pacific Crab apple is apparently quite happy in a boggy environment, so it might be just the right thing here... Or not?
If I do go ahead with this experiment, any advice?
I have several kinds of apples on M. fusca. One of them has taken 4 years from budding to fruit. The others are younger grafts, but making good progress. All these are on older, pre-existing trees of fusca, so I just converted them over to real apples.
I had read long ago that fusca was once lumped with pears, I think they actually called it Pyrus fusca back then. On that bit of info, I grafted pear to a fusca stump and it has done nicely over its 4 years. Kind of in the shade of an oak, so it may be longer till it fruits. But the graft does look okay.
I say you should follow your instincts on this, and do the graft you propose.
Hey Jafar:
I may ask Viron if he can save any for me at the Propagation Fair. If not, maybe through Raintree?
For the Pacific Crab Apple, Bosky Dell has them. I'm not sure what size or form they sell them in, though.
Do you have any recommendations? I haven't purchased rootstocks before.
J
Great discussion guys!
Jadeforrest, I missed last years scion exchange with a cold; if I can doge another, and/or the flu, for the next week I’d be happy to save you some ‘interstem tops’ – as would any of our grafters (I suspect we all hate to ‘waste’ it). Just provide us a 5 gallon bucket, or something to toss them into. It’s funny… I’ll remove the top of an M9 or B9 and make a conscious effort to ‘save it’ away for interstem use and my grafting client's look a bit concerned… they just paid for that little tree! Not only did I lop off most of it - I mumbled something about saving it for someone else! Now, after our recent discussions on ‘interstems,’ I’ll be better ready to describe the process to them. So, “Questions†work!
Just to keep the Forum understandable to everyone (including myself), here’s Burnt Ridge’s description of our ‘native crabapple’ (Malus fusca):
“Able to grow in very wet sites, hence the alternate name SWAMP CRAB APPLE. Suitable as a rootstock for apples on sites otherwise too wet. Widely adapted West Coast native from California to Alaska. It doesn’t require wet ground. Tiny tart fruits for jelly or for the birds. Zone 5 - 8.†(with photo!)
I’ve often wondered about their use as rootsock - as I’ve avoided mowing over, even pruned the ‘native crab’ alongside my orchard…
I also want to mention my experience with a wet area. A neighbor had laughed at me as I planted 4 apples and a (European) plum tree along side a low ‘field’ that may have standing water for days during heavy rain & runoff. Said neighbor’s been admiring beautiful trees loaded with fruit for fifteen years now! I’d actually planted them to give the deer something further from my ‘home orchard’ to feed on – though that didn’t work…
If your wet site is only temporary, during the winter when the tree’s dormant anyway, I wouldn’t be afraid to plant an apple on ‘whatever’ roots… Mine were all ‘store bought’ – on who-knows-what “Semi-Dwarfing†rootstock. But if you’re intrigued with the unique apple (or pear) tree you’d have combining a native crab, ‘dwarfed’ with an interstem - then go for it! …it only sounds as if we’ll be waiting years to learn of its fruit.
One more thing… as the HOS hierarchy is in constant need of Summer Tour locations … any of you talented guys ready to show off your work? I’ve had three out here, and nothing sparks you into orchard maintenance like expecting a group of fellow orchardist’s, positive motivation for sure! I’ve never seen apple or pear on a native crab! …Speak up; on past tours they’ve combined several sites near each other, the only need is an open 'picnic' field with plumbed water and outhouse or ‘bathroom’ at one of them. I had the outhouse!
The late Pierre Rotschky and I had long exchanges about Malus fusca as he had a lot of it. The interstem that seems to work well with it is the old "Winter Banana" apple. That apple is graft compatible with pears, and it seems to be the best bridge on Malus fusca. Dr. M. N. Westwood tested M.f. as a rootstock and found it made a semi-dwarf tree. Also, the species has the highest resistance to fireblight of all apples.
If you hunt around, you can sometimes find natural hybrids between M.f. and domestic apples.
Lon: I'm so pleased to hear that someone has practical experience with this.
I'm surprised Malus fusca would product a semi-dwarf tree when used as a rootstock. Do you know approximately how large his trees got to? I ask because as far as I know, in the wild they can get to 40 feet tall or more.
I wouldn't have thought to use a cultivar as the interstem, but that is very interesting about the Winter Banana. If you put that on the rootstock, you could end up with a tree you could grow apples or pears on? Fascinating, and what a great use of space! Again, I'm surprised the Winter Banana could be used this way, but I don't know very much about that cultivar. Did he say anything about the number of years before they produced fruit?
I'm hungry for details!
Semi-dwarf is an average. Some Malus fusca can indeed get fairly tall, but a lot of the species is rather small. I've seen many that weren't over 20 feet at best.
Winter Banana was used as an interstem at OSU to produce dwarf Asian pears on M 26 rootstock. They were as small as six feet tall and still had good, normal fruit. You could use WB on Malus fusca and graft either apple or pear on it.
As to how soon a cultivar grafted to M. fusca would bear, it would depend on the scion variety.
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