Final Report on the 1980 NC-140 Apple 

 Rootstock Planting : Starkspur Supreme 

 Delicious on Eight Rootstocks 



Wesley R. Autio and William J. Lord 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences^ University of Massachusetts 



Finding the apple rootstock that adapts the 

 best to various conditions, is resistant to pests, 

 gives an appropriate degree of dwarfing, gives 

 the greatest precocity, results in the highest 

 jdelds, and gives the best £ruit quality has been 

 a research and breeding goal for nearly a cen- 



tury. Growers in New England, however, did 

 not begin to look at clonally propagated 

 rootstocks seriously until the ISeCs, when the 

 use of semidwarfing rootstocks, such as M.7, 

 began in earnest. During the late 1980's, seri- 

 ous planting of fully dwarfing rootstocks began, 



Tree spread (ft) 



"T 

 2 



I 

 4 



I 

 6 



8 



10 



12 



"T" 

 14 



16 



14 



12 



10 



8 



6 



4 



- 2 



- 



Figure 1. Relative canopy dimensions of Starkspur Supreme Delicious trees on eight rootstocks 

 at the end of the forteenth growing season. 





0) 



16 



M.7 EMLA 



OAR1 



M.26 EMLA 



0.3 



MAC.9 



M.9 EMLA 



M.9 



M.27 EMLA 



Fru'n Notes, Spring, 1994 



