There are orchards in Tennessee, but no large ones near where I live. I have seen small plantings (10-15) trees around some of the local farms, but would be surprised to find that those growers were "experts". In any event, I don't know any experienced individual fruit growers locally. It seems to me that feedback from multiple sources, such as here on Gardenweb, is one of the best ways to get info. Another good thing is the "peer review" that goes on here. I have talked to the local extension people, but have found that the amount of helpful information from them is definitely limited. I think the combined years of experience here are probably highly useful compared to any single source with which I am familiar. As for planting the graft union right at ground level, from what I read about burying the graft unions to reduce/eliminate burr knots, I'm not sure that planting the graft unions at or just above ground level would work. I think the idea was to plant the trees so that the scion would form its own root system and eventually bypass the 111 rootstock. Has anyone else had good or bad experiences with 111 concerning burr knots? Anyone have any information about how much difference the EMLA (virus free) rootstock makes? How about the tomato ringspot virus issues?

1) Bitterpit is due to Calcium defficiency and Purdue didn't establish a link in between MM111 and bitterpit on William's pride. See details below. 2) MM111 bears the first year on many varieties, it doesn't come into "full" production until about year five when the tree has reached maturity. Details: Bitterpit is a non-issue as long as your soil doesn't have a calcium deficiency. Bitterpit is easy to remedy, so using MM111 shouldn't be an issue. In fact, Purdue states that the bitterpit observed on MM111 was only on first year crop, and was on trees in very sandy soil with heavy irrigation and excessive nitrogen fertilization. So I would not extrapolate that it means William's pride always gets bitterpit on MM111. MM111 has borne the first year I planted nursery grown bare root trees. It will take up to five years to go into full production, but if you let the tree bear the first five years, it will slow down its growth in a major way, and dwarf it intensely. The varieties that bore the first year of planting on MM111 in my garden include: - Pink pearl, around 5 apples, today it's only 8 feet tall after 3 years and produces like crazy, this year over 100 apples. I have to keep it from bearing to add size to the tree. - pink princess, total biennial, same as pink pearl except this year it's on an off year. - Allington pippin - heavy crop the first year - nonethesuch, heavy crop the first year - Winter banana, biggest crop of all trees the first year with giant fruit. - White Winter pearmain, good crop the first year The list goes on and on. So far, Spigold is a shy bearer and has not come into full production. Nothing on Cox Orange Pippin, nothing on Carmijin de sonaville. For me and many other CRFG growers in Santa Cruz county, MM111 has been the most amazing rootstock. I also have M7, but the trees totally lack vigor and yet overbear like crazy. The quality is not as good as on MM111, because M7 doesn't have the root structure required to tolerate our long, dry Summers. They require too much water. MM111 requires maybe one deep watering per month, and that's it.

Windfall_rob, I'm interested in what they told you about the G11/MM111. I haven't seen much about it online (or that much about interstems in general), so anything you can add would be great. Harvestman, That seems reasonable. My first two guesses would be: 1.) While interstems are better rooted, maybe it isn't enough to negate the need for staking or a trellis. Of the 13 trees I have planted, the only one damaged by Irene was the Antonovka(which I've been trying to keep under control through limb-tying). I suspect it was because all the dwarf trees were securely tied up (10.5' galvanized 1 3/8" chain link rail for the G11/G16 and 7' U-post for the B9/M27, all at least 2-2.5' in the ground), but the Antonovka was only tied to a small pole from when it was first planted last year (the kind you can tie tomatoes to...). Point being, if a strong post/trellis system may be needed anyways, the added cost of the interstem could make commercial growers shy away. I know- this is a small (tiny) sample size... 2.) There could be problems or just worries about potential problems. One of the articles (I think Scott linked it in an earlier thread) warned of "unexpected interactions", excessive under-stock suckering, and delayed bearing (compared to a dwarf rootstock).

Lind, I'm pretty sensitive to drainage because I've lost so many trees to it. A few years ago I got tired of pulling out dead trees, so I installed a field tile in most of the orchard area. It drains a lot of sub-surface water into a neighbor's pond. The tile stopped trees from dying but many trees still weren't thriving, so I've been slowly converting more trees to mounds. It's just what I have to do here. When I pull one out, I build a mound if I plan to go back w/ a peach. In my area, which may be different from MD, the soil stays wet from about Nov. thru June of the following year. It's the months of April, May, and June that the soggy soil does the trees in. In the past I've made my mounds out of regular native soil because it's free. This has worked very well for me. Below is an old photo I took this Spring. The tree directly to the left of my son was just starting it's second leaf/year. The tree in the mound on the right was also starting it's second leaf. However, the one on the right was not in a mound the first year and suffered stunting. So last fall, I dug it out, built a mound, and replanted. This picture was taken before either tree had put on any appreciable second leaf shoot growth. Both trees were the same size at purchase (bout 3/4"). My other trees in mounds perform similarly. Lately, I'm running out of places to dig, so I've been experimenting using wood chips as a base and putting soil on top as the growing medium. By the textbooks, this is a no no. But like I say, this is an experiment. This week I just got through building 10 more mounds for more trees. Rented a Dingo to build the mounds. Have 18 peach trees coming for next season, and have a mound for every one.