Performance of Trees in the 

 Massachusetts Planting of the 

 1994 NC-140 Apple Rootstock Trial 

 over Seven Growing Seasons 



Wesley R. Autio, James Krupa, and Jon Clements 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



Over the last several years, the cost of producing apples 

 has continued to increase, while returns have remained the 

 same or increased only modestly. To remain profitable, 

 apple growers must search out and adopt any efficiencies 

 possible. One such efficiency is the use of dwarfing 

 rootstocks. Fully dwarf rootstocks result in trees ranging 

 from 10% to 40% of a standard, seedling-rooted tree. 

 Compared to standard or semidwarf trees, these smaller 

 trees produce similar or greater yields per acre, generally 

 have larger fruit size and better color, require less pruning 



and harvest labor, and greatly reduce the amount of 

 pesticides required to treat an acre. On the other hand, dwarf 

 trees must be planted at significantly higher densities than 

 semidwarf or standard trees, therefore they cost much more 

 per acre to establish. This increased cost must be offset by 

 the use of the optimum rootstock and planting density for a 

 given condition so as to reduce the risk of inefficiency. 

 Selecting the best rootstock is not always easy, since several 

 dwarf rootstocks are now commercially available. 



To aid growers in making these decisions, the NC-140 



Fruit Notes, Volume 65, 2000 



