CHAPTER XIV 

 STOCK AND CION HANDLING 



242. Own-rooted trees are those produced either from 

 seed, cuttings or otherwise than grafting or budding, so 

 they have roots of the same wood as their trunks. 

 Grafted and budded trees are said to become "own- 

 rooted" when they have developed roots from the cion 

 above the union and the stock ceases to function. 

 Grafted grapes, roses and other plants often become own 

 rooted in the same way. In certain cases it may be an 

 advantage for grafted trees to become own-rooted, as in 

 the northwestern states, where the winters are severe 

 and only hardy roots can withstand the rigors. In other 

 cases it is a disadvantage ; for instance, dwarfs which 

 would thus become standards. Again, if own roots are 

 allowed to grow on cions of European grape grafted on 

 phylloxera-resistant American stocks, the vines would be 

 as open to attacks of this insect (280) as if not grafted. 



243. Standard is a term applied to trees which grow the 

 full, normal size of the species upon their own roots or 

 the roots of a stock which does not dwarf them. 



244. The production of seedlings is a branch of the 

 nursery business for the most part in the hands of special- 

 ists who sell their product to other nurserymen for bud- 

 ding and grafting. The former men usually are not con- 

 cerned with the work of the latter and vice versa. 



245. Apple seedlings to be used as stocks require a deep, fertile 

 soil such as that in the Kaw Valley of Kansas, where the rich 

 black earth produces long, straight, plump tap roots. Hard, 

 gravelly and shallow soils over hardpan contort the tap root and 

 produce branches, thus spoiling the seedlings for stock purposes. 

 Long, plump, unbranched tap roots make two or three or even four 

 stocks. The ground is deeply plowed and loosened to 10 inches if 

 possible, preferably in the fall, so it may be worked at the earliest 

 possible moment in spring. 



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