You can read my previous posts to see photos of my soil and my situation.

To summarize, I am in Zone 4a/b north of Ottawa, Canada. My soil is fairly heavy clay that has standing water for a few weeks in fall and during spring melt. Despite that I still have many things growing (see profile) so I don't think my soil is the end of the world and I will work with what I have.

I am now filling in my last 6 apple trees. They will be planted 8-9 feet apart and will be summer pruned to control vigor to keep at 7-8 feet. My supplier has all the trees I want available on B9. That said, I don't want B9 for my soil. He has Antonovka rootstock and he is willing to bench-graft whatever I want. I understand I am years away from bearing on Antonovka but don't care - a late bearing tree alive is better than an early bearing but dead tree.

So the advice I want from you is: which apples would you do what? eg. Graft directly to Antonovka or graft as B9 interstem? I am willing to risk loosing trees as I see this as an experiment that could benefit others in similar situations to my own. I have enough other trees that even if all 6 of these die it is not a big deal.

Apples are:

T1: Weak vigor varieties

T2: Medium vigor varieties

T3: Very vigorous varieties

Crimson Crisp T2 - Spur bearing

Enterprise T3 - Spur bearing

Golden Russet T3 - Tip bearing

Goldrush T2 - Spur bearing

Pristineª T2 - Semi-Spur bearing

Redfree T3 - Tip bearing

I know spur bearing fruiting habit is more dwarfing than a nonspur bearing fruiting habit.

So I was thinking Goldrush and Crimson Crisp as direct grafts to Antonovka as they are both moderate vigor and spur bearing and could probably use extra vigor in my climate.

Enterprise as direct grafts to Antonovka and prune like crazy just for an experiment.

The rest I was going to try as Antonovka-B9 interstem and see how they do.

Sounds like ideally I should plant the interstem 15cm below ground for improved frost resistance and less suckering but as this will be a primary graft event I guess I will just leave it above ground.

Feedback/comments welcome. I need to make my decision in the next week or so.

For some info on Bud 9/Antonovka Interstems.

http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=243_7

I have obtained apple vigor information from:

http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/growfruit/apples/estimated-tree-vigor-for-apple-varieties/

I have obtained tip vs spur bearing from:

http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com/pdf/Apple_Fruiting.pdf

Interesting publicatiion on flowering dates and yields for most of these apples

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Horticulture/masabni/Publications/applecultivar.pdf

For those interested the apple descriptions below are from:

http://www.cumminsnursery.com/disease.htm

CRIMSON CRISP New introduction from the Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois coop breeding program; tested as Co-op 39. Very crisp and juicy. Rich flavor; pleasant sugar-acid balance, on the sweeter side. Excellent red skin color. Good storage. CAR moderate on fruit, heavy on foliage. Susceptible to fire blight. USPP#16622.

ENTERPRISE. Introduced from the PRI breeding program. Tested as CO-OP 30. Fruit is medium to large. Skin is a glossy, very bright red on deep yellow ground. Flesh is cream, medium-fine texture, crisp. Tree is medium to vigorous, spreading, annual cropping. Late bloom. Harvest is two weeks after Delicious. High quality storage apple. After 6 months in common storage, it still retains an excellent texture with a full, slightly spicy flavor. Worthy of commercial planting. Scab-immune; resistant to fire blight and C.A.R. Plant patent #9193. Royalty $1.00 per tree.

GOLDEN RUSSETT Regarded by many as the finest-flavored of all the American antiques. Beautiful golden skin covered with a net of russet. Late ripening. Considered the very best cider variety. Good winter-hardiness. Modest production, but we expect to see higher productivity with these rootstocks. Scab-tolerant.

GOLDRUSHTM New from the PRI breeding program, a Golden Delicious hybrid. Tested as CO-OP 38. A very high quality, yellow winter apple. It has a pleasant tart flavor at harvest that develops into a very rich, well-balanced flavor after a few weeks in storage. Outstanding storage life. It is a moderately vigorous semi-spur tree. Easily tripped into biennial bearing; very early thinning in first years of fruiting is helpful. Bloom mid-season. Scab-immune (Vf gene); moderately susceptible to cedar apple rust. Royalty $1.00 per tree. Plant Patent #9932.

PRISTINE® From the Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois breeding program (PRI). Resistant to scab, fire blight, powdery mildew, and cedar apple rust. Maturity date is quite early -- late July, just after Lodi; requires multiple pickings. It is a smooth, glossy golden-skinned apple with a slightly spicy flavor. Very good shelf life for a summer apple. Very early bearing. Royalty $1.00 per tree. Plant Patent #9881.

REDFREE Has 90%, full red Jonathan-type color. Ripens with Paulared, about 6 weeks before Delicious, but much better flavor. The flesh is firm with a flavor that has been compared to Empire. Aggressive thinning is required to get good size and to avoid biennial production. In addition to resistance to scab, cedar apple rust, fireblight, and mildew, it appears to be somewhat resistant to red mites. Plant Patent #4322