If a nursery doesn't know their rootstock

9 years ago

Is knowing what rootstock your growing really that important or is it good enough to know that it is a dwarf, semi dwarf etc. ?

When i ask what rootstock a particular
dwarf tree at Stark Bros. was on I was told typically they are grown on m26 or m9 .

I then asked if they could tell me when I order what rootstock the tree was actually on I was told unfortunately they could not.

Is this a common occurrence at nurseries or should I look elsewhere?

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Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
then one might presume the catalog is more of a middleman ... than a direct nursery ...

thats my best guess ....

i would further bet ... if you wish to accomplish your goal ... you need to buy from the grower direct ... of which.. i am sure the savants here ... will have lists...

ken
spartan-apple
9 years ago
Piper:

I too tried buying from Stark Nursery (retail). When I inquired, I was told the variety I wanted was grown on M7 and Bud-118. I would have no choice on what I got. Glad to know the info but I took my business elsewhere.

Yes I do feel rootstock is important to know so I know if I should stake or not, how big tree will get, how far to space
out the tree and if it will do well in my soil.

Once I bought a Ginger Gold without asking rootstock (was listed semi-dwarf). Tree arrived and was very nice but tag on it said "MM106". My heart sank as I have heavy clay soil. I lost the tree a few years later to collar rot.

I will never buy apple trees again unless I know what the rootstock is. I do buy from Schabach's and they do not list the rootstock. When I call David and ask, he lets me know
what the choices are and I mark that info on my order. He will honor a request and usually has apple varieties available on many rootstocks. Works great for me!

Others like Raintree list the rootstock choices on each variety up front.

I would suggest you buy your apple trees from a source that lets you know the rootstock. Listing as "semi-dwarf" or
'Dwarf" does nothing for me.
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Dave: If these trees are "dwarf", they sure aren't acting much like it. Eight feet tall in the original container is pretty large, although many nurseries sell these big trees since unsuspecting customers seem to prefer them. I'm not surprised the nursery doesn't know the rootstock, but would guess they are semi-dwarfs on something like M-7, which will grow a tree 12-14 feet tall, and that is with some pruning. They should be planted at least 12-15 feet apart. Granny Smith is a pretty vigorous cultivar and should be summer pruned to prevent crowding from twigginess. Many Fuji trees also tend to be twiggy, and many are tipbearers, especially the older cultivars. Granny and Fuji are two of the latest-ripening apples grown in this country, and zone 5 is not appropriate for most long-season apples. Again, I'm not surprised the nursery doesn't know that. In the PNW, some of these apples can be grown in colder zones because of the intense summers. Please indicate just where you live in zone 5. The first thing I would do with 8-foot trees would be to cut them off at less than 4 feet, and start training from there. You may wish to wait for spring to do that. You seem to be aware of the advantages of branch selection and spreading, so my advice is to do what you already know you should do. Your soil preparation sounds pretty good, although I would have left the compost out of the hole and spread it on the surface around the trees. I hope when you planted that you unfurled and spread the roots to the extent possible. If you get these trees whacked down to where they should be, it may not be necessary to provide external support at all. But you may not ever see fully ripe apples from Granny and Fuji trees where you live. Even here in much warmer Northern Virginia zone 7, these varieties ripen in mid to late October, but if you get them down to where you can control them you may have a shot in some of your warmer summmers. My preference is always for young, 1 or 2 year trees, but there are an awful lot of trees sold at local nurseries or bigbox stores as "sale" or impulse purchases that are a whole lot bigger. They don't offer any advantages. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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clarkinks
9 years ago
Rootstock is an important thing to know.
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years ago
I agree about how poor they are on handling their trees. But I have ordered raspberries and blueberries from them, and they were top rate plants. Very impressive. And have you seen their goji berries? Wow, I might have too try one or two of those cultivars. So even though the info is poor on the trees, I would bet you get some awesome trees from them all the same.
I love their website where they have a growing guide for every plant they sell. Not just a guide, but what to do for problems, when to spray, what to spray, it's extremely impressive growing guide, no doubt nobody has better! Plus you can update your order all winter without ever contacting them, just pull up your order and change it. The web site is the very best in the industry.
Why they feel root stock is not important is concerning and makes little sense as everything else about them is very impressive.

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If a nursery doesn't know their rootstock

Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

spartan-apple

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clarkinks

drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a

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