rootstock

[mutty042130]

still looking for a uk supplier of rootstock for grafting apple and pears onto anyone know of any cheers

[mutty042130]

[teresa]

Hi try this site at the bottom of the page is a link to rootstocks may be of help.

http://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/search.aspx

good luck

[mutty042130]

thanks for the info teresa

[mutty042130]

tried the site only sell apple and pear trees not rootstock to graft onto its murder trying to find a supplier

[teresa]

how about contacting them they might sell you one?

[mutty042130]

hi good idea but they might only sell trees that are already grafted but woth a try

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you're desperate, buy a tree on the rootstack you want. Chop off the graft, and regrow from the base. That will give you a tree you could then take cuttings from. Slow but sure.

[Ed^Chigliak]

Yep it's proving very difficult to find a rootstock supplier.

Same question elsewhere and the answer...

Try Deacon's Nursery, Godshill, Isle of Wight. I've had good rootstock from them in the past, and they seem to be the only place offering rootstocks for amateur use.

No website will have to phone then.

[jennym]

You could try using a seedling from a crab apple as rootstock for the apple you want to graft.
Alternatively, where an existing tree has slight damage to the base they often throw up suckers (or shoots. I'm not sure of the right term) from the rootstock around the base. These can be cut as hardwood cuttings when dormant, and used as your rootstock. Often you see pear with the quince rootstock having suckers coming up.

[john_miller]

You could try using a seedling from a crab apple as rootstock for the apple you want to graft.
Alternatively, where an existing tree has slight damage to the base they often throw up suckers (or shoots. I'm not sure of the right term) from the rootstock around the base. These can be cut as hardwood cuttings when dormant, and used as your rootstock. Often you see pear with the quince rootstock having suckers coming up.

The problem with this is if you are unfortunate enough to select a non dwarfing rootstock you could end with a very large tree that will take years to bear fruit.

[jennym]

Couldn't you take from an established crab apple (seedling type) - then you could see how big that was, and wouldn't that be the guide to the eventual size when material was used for rootstock?

[john_miller]

Yes you could but you would have to know the cultivar to be able to get some idea of the eventual size. Eventual size is also very dependent upon cultural conditions, nutrition, soil type, etc., and can dramatically alter the mature size.

[jennym]

Have you ever used any rootstock like that? I'm trying to get some quince C to root that I cut from a pear tree in February, with the view to having a go at grafting onto it.

[john_miller]

Even though I wasn't particularly organic at the time when I was handed a recommended spraying schedule for top fruit at college I instantly realised I had no interest in growing any woody trees for fruit. No, I have never done that.
Did you "cut", presumably a sucker, with roots?

[Robert_Brenchley]

You don't need to use all the chemicals. Actually the biggest problems are frost, which did for my plums this year, birds, if you grow cherries, and poor pollination.

[jennym]

No, didn't get any roots, just took hardwood cuttings. They may well have rooted by now, but I'm leaving them until the autumn to plant out.
Don't really need to use chemicals either. Maybe it's more difficult not to when you consider the volumes in commercial orchards, but in the numbers I have I can tackle problems without them.