PROGRESS REPORT: 



SCION/ROOTSTOCK AND INTERSTEM EFFECTS ON APPLE 

 TREE GROWTH AND FRUITING 



William J. Lord 

 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



In 1976, in cooperation with 9 other states, we established 

 a planting of Empire and Millerspur Delicious trees containing an 

 8- inch interstem of M.9 on either MM. Ill, Antonovka, or Ottawa 

 11 rootstocks. The trees were small and weak at planting and we 

 have experienced significant tree losses 



MM 



Fig. 1 . An 

 a 8- inch M9 

 tween MJ-1.111 

 the scion cu 

 white line i 

 piece, and t 

 is painted o 

 of the tree, 

 the M9 5 temp 

 inches above 

 trees plante 

 duce more ro 

 picture) tha 

 piece is bel 

 that the dia 

 is larger th 

 stock or sci 



interstem tree with 

 stempiece grafted be- 

 rootstock and Empire, 

 Itivar. (The lower 

 s painted on the stem- 

 he upper white line 

 n the scion portion 

 ) The union between 

 iece and MMlll is 2- 

 ground. Interstem 

 d at this depth pro- 

 ot suckers (shown in 

 n if most of the stem- 

 ow ground. Note 

 meter of the stempiece 

 an that of the root- 

 on . 



The significant losses of 

 trees in this planting make most 

 data meaningless except for overall 

 observations. Some of the trees 

 cropped in 1978, particularly the 

 Empire trees. However, both in 

 1978 and 1979 yields were much less 

 than in an adjacent block of Mc- 

 intosh of the same age on MM106, 

 M. 7 or M. 26. 



Stephen Long-Photo Center 



