Selecting For Success: Rootstocks For High-Density Plantings -- Follow these recommendations when choosing dwarfing rootstock

摘要

VITAL to the success of any high-density planting is choosing a suitable dwarfing rootstock. The NC-140 committee comprised of researchers from 32 sites in North America established a cooperative apple rootstock planting in 1984. The location of the cooperators was very diverse, with sites in most of the apple production areas of the U.S. and Canada. The wide range of climatic conditions at the sites subjected root-stocks to extremes in temperature, as well as a severe drought in many midwestern sites in 1988. Starkspur Supreme Delicious was the scion on 15rootstocks that ranged in tree size from M.27 size to seedling size. At each site, all trees were spaced 11 feet x 18 feet and trained as central leaders with minimal pruning.