Weekly Food Forest Tour! 3/29/20 Part 2- Using Seedling Apple Rootstock for Genetic Diversity!
The seedling rootstock are starting to bud out pretty well. Each one of these rootstock are genetically different from the other one, since they were each grown from a seed. I like having the genetic diversity of having seedling rootstock, instead of clonal rootstock (where every rootstock is the exact same plant (clone) and there isn't any genetic diversity. I will probably mainly be using the rootstock as a nurse rootstock just long enough to get the actual variety to send out its own roots and then I'll cut it off. However it does give a little more flexibility if I have extra rootstock, as I can plant them in the food forest to help fill it in initially. With each rootstock being a seedling, I could let it grow out enough to produce apples and see how the fruit is, or it could be grafted over to other varieties later as it gets bigger. Seedling rootstock helps provide additional options, and I think creating these additional options is very valuable. The peach seedlings are growing fast! The tallest ones are already about 6 or 7 inches tall! One peach seedling is sprouting from the group that was planted on the edge of the apple rootstock bed. It could be that the others in this bed are just a little behind since they were planted after the ones in the circle bed, but at least so far it appears that planting the peach seeds shortly after harvesting them like the ones in the circle bed, may help increase the germination rate, and it was a lot easier that way also. A few of the pomegranates are either leafing out from limbs that survived over winter or are growing back from the roots if their branches didn't make it. It'll be interesting to see which ones have the best cold tolerance and whose limbs can make it through the winter without dying. I'd love to hopefully get some pomegranates from them in the next few years and save the seeds to create new hardy pomegranate varieties that are well adapted for our area and that taste yummy too! :)
The seedling rootstock are starting to bud out pretty well. Each one of these rootstock are genetically different from the other one, since they were each grown from a seed. I like having the genetic diversity of having seedling rootstock, instead of clonal rootstock (where every rootstock is the exact same plant (clone) and there isn't any genetic diversity. I will probably mainly be using the rootstock as a nurse rootstock just long enough to get the actual variety to send out its own roots and then I'll cut it off. However it does give a little more flexibility if I have extra rootstock, as I can plant them in the food forest to help fill it in initially. With each rootstock being a seedling, I could let it grow out enough to produce apples and see how the fruit is, or it could be grafted over to other varieties later as it gets bigger. Seedling rootstock helps provide additional options, and I think creating these additional options is very valuable. The peach seedlings are growing fast! The tallest ones are already about 6 or 7 inches tall! One peach seedling is sprouting from the group that was planted on the edge of the apple rootstock bed. It could be that the others in this bed are just a little behind since they were planted after the ones in the circle bed, but at least so far it appears that planting the peach seeds shortly after harvesting them like the ones in the circle bed, may help increase the germination rate, and it was a lot easier that way also. A few of the pomegranates are either leafing out from limbs that survived over winter or are growing back from the roots if their branches didn't make it. It'll be interesting to see which ones have the best cold tolerance and whose limbs can make it through the winter without dying. I'd love to hopefully get some pomegranates from them in the next few years and save the seeds to create new hardy pomegranate varieties that are well adapted for our area and that taste yummy too! :)