Cider Digest #0763

Published in

· 8 months ago

Subject: Cider Digest #763, 10 September 1998 
From: cider-request@talisman.com 

Cider Digest #763                                         10 September 1998 

                 Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues 
                      Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor 

Contents: 
  M9 Rootstock (Richard Anderson) 

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Subject: M9 Rootstock 
From: Richard Anderson <baylonanderson@csi.com> 
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 21:47:33 -0700 

I think it is safe to say " it depends". M9 is a common, successful 
rootstock for many commercial dessert apple orchards in Western Europe 
and the US. It is used because of its precocity and yields per 
hector/acre. The intent is to grow fruit not wood.  As a rootstock, it 
is brittle, requiring support;  it not resistant to Fireblight, nor 
considered good in clay soils. One solution is to graft a dwarfing 
interstem like M9 on top of a more vigorous rootstock, then graft the 
desired variety to the M9 interstem. 

We are planting several acres on M9 and M26 for some of the weaker 
varieties and are looking for yields and easy management. We trellis and 
train for a vertical axis with three to four good scaffold branches on 
the horizontal and weaker branching up the single leader. This allows 
good light penetration and easy access for spraying and summer pruning. 
We are removing all fruit the first year, and thinning heavily the 
second year, perhaps again the third. 

If I were to grow just a few trees, I would plant on self supporting 
root stock, like M111 or M107 and not fuss to much with them. 

 Some good books on this subject are: 

Barritt, Bruce H., Intensive Orchard Management 
Good Fruit Grower, Yakima Washington, 1992 

Williams, R.R,Editor, Cider and Juice Apples: Growing and Processing 
The Hereford Cider Museum, Pomona Place, Hereford UK, 1989? 

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End of Cider Digest #763 
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