You can graft to your rootstock when the new growth is large enough. A nice experiment, educational and inexpensive. You could do a bud graft in the summer (when buds are available from the current year's growth) but not force it until spring. You could do a whip and tongue, a bark, a chip, or a cleft graft next spring. Plenty of people here would be glad to give their well-informed opinions on any of these. You do run the risk of being on a rootstock that isn't suited to your purpose, but you should be able to find out from the seller what it is- or at least whether it's a semi-dwarf (most likely) or a standard. Then come back here and get even more opinions! Good luck to you, M

As of now, between my row of freestanding trees and espiliars, I am planing on planting about 10 disease resistant/ low spray verieties that are recommended for home growers, like redfree/jonafree/liberty/enterprise/goldrush. I will also plant about 14 favorates of fellow forum members, which would ideally be best quality, taste, and potential commercial value. I am buying trees from a nursery in the spring. What varieties are better for espiliar, why?

You will find Goldrush to be exceptionally good as a cooker, I think. It's high acid and firm texture make it a pretty exciting addition to pies, compoties or whatever. N. Spy also is great for cooking as is Jonagold. Scab and cedar apple resistance are also in Arkansas Black, Ashmead's Kernel, Golden Russet, Roxbury Russet, Saint Edmonds Pippin, Spartan, and old strain Stayman amongst others, according to Tom Burford's list. These are all very nice apples that should do well where you are. Ash is my favorite heirloom for flavor, but may not be a consistent cropper. If you add the fungicide Immunox (myclobutanyl) with your first two (and probably only) insecticide sprays, you can probably grow and harvest any apple you want. In case you are interested, here is a spray schedule that should work for you. Alan Haigh- The Home Orchard and Nursery Co. REPRINT PERMISSION FROM ALAN HAIGH REQUIRED ________________________________________ Low Spray Schedule for Home Orchards in the Northeast Here's my spray schedule for the scores of orchards I manage around SE NY adapted for home owners managing a few fruit trees. It has functioned well for me for over 2 decades, although J. Beetles and brown rot of stone fruit increases the number of sprays and necessary pesticides some years some sites. Stink bugs are also an increasing problem requiring more subsequent sprays when they appear. Time of spray is based on apple bloom as that is the predominant fruit here but I generally get away with spraying all trees at the time I spray apples. Please note that pesticide labels must be read before their use and my recommendations do not override the rules on the label. The label is the law. This document only communicates what has worked for me and your results may vary depending on local pest pressure, which may require a different spray schedule. Dormant oil (this is optional if there were no mites or scale issues the previous season, which is usually the case in home orchards). Do oil spray somewhere between the point where emerging shoots are 1/2" and the flower clusters begin to show a lot of pink. Mix Immunox (myclobutinyl) at highest legal rate (listed on label for controlling scab and cedar apple rust on apple trees) with 1 to 2% oil. If it's closer to pink use 1%. Don't spray again until petal fall when petals have mostly gone from latest flowering varieties and bees have lost interest. Then spray Triazide (Spectracide Once and Done) + Immunox mixed together at highest legal rates. Repeat once in 10 to 14 days. Where I manage orchards, the space between earliest flowering Japanese plums and latest flowering apples is only 2 weeks or so which usually allows me to wait until the latest flowering trees are ready to begin spraying anything. Plum curculio seems to time its appearance conveniently to the rhythm of the last flowering apple varieties. This may not be true where you are. If plums or peaches need oil they may need application before apples. I’ve only had mites on European plums here and never need oil for other stone fruit. All this is based on plum curculio being your primary insect problem which is the case most areas east of the Mis. River. These sprays will also absolutely control scab, CAR and Mildew as well as most of the crop fatal insects. Apple fly maggot is an exception, but I haven't had much of a problem with this pest in the orchards I manage. This pest can be controlled with a lot of fake apples smeared with tangle trap. If you don't want to use synthetic chemicals try 4 applications of Surround about a week apart starting at petal fall. You may need to start on earlier flowering varieties as soon as they drop petals because Surround is a repellent and can’t kill eggs after they’ve been inserted into the fruit.. Stone fruit may require the addition of an application or 2 of Indar (Monterey Fungus Fighter is closest available chemical for home growers) starting 4 weeks before first peaches ripen. Apricots must be sprayed sooner if they are scab susceptible with same compound. Because I manage so many orchards so far apart, I have to resort to a spray schedule that is based on expectations rather than actual monitoring. You may be able to reduce insecticide sprays with monitoring, but PC can enter an orchard overnight and if your insecticide lacks kick-back (as is the case with Triazide), do a lot of damage in a couple of days.. Other problems may occur later in the season and you will in time learn to monitor and react to the pitfalls. Good luck, Alan Haigh- The Home Orchard and Nursery Co.

From the looks of it I would say the red colored growth is very likely the root stock. The Budagovsky (B9), (B118) all have that typical coloration. Looks like the far left and possibly the far right trunks are root stock from the picture. I am sure you can tell from the leaves. I would go ahead and remove those 2 trunks now. IMO I would leave the "regular" apple now and prune out a trunk or two next dormant pruning. I would not rip out the tree and start over looks to be healthy and it can be pruned into a more productive tree if you like the taste of the apples. Otherwise you can graft it over to something else.