Rootstock effect on bud break

[Barndog56]

Does rootstock have any effect on how early bud break occurs in apple trees?

If I have Honeycrisp on 3 different rootstocks, say B118, M111, and B9, will they greenup at different times or all together?

I have 30 seedling apples that I'm going to graft varieties onto. Most show no signs of waking up yet, but a handful have bud swell and will probably start opening in the next couple days. And 1 is already leafing out. Will that 1 force the variety grafted to it to wake up early?

If rootstock does effect bud break timing, should that early riser have an early rising variety grafted to it? Or should I graft on a late bloomer to try to counteract it?

Hoping someone knows some answers so I don't have to fly blind and find out after the fact.

 

[Mortenson]

My uneducated guess is that rootstock doesn't have much if any influence on bud break. Following to see what the real answer is.

 

[Prof.Kent]

My guess is that when the rootstock comes out of dormancy you get bud break. It is more related to ground temperature than rootstock type. And micro-climates count, so south-facing hillsides and direct sunlight will waken the tree first.

 

[b116757]

I have two Red delicious trees within 25’ of each other one is on a dwarfing rootstock and that tree after 20 years is only maybe 10’ tall always seems to bloom a week before the one next to it on a semi dwarfing rootstock. Hardly a sample size large enough to make any firm conjectures based on but does seem to indicate there could be a difference.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I can tell you that bud break time is different amongst root stock types. In our nursery B118 breaks first, followed by M7 and then M111. I haven't paid notice to if that has any any impact on when the scion breaks bud.

 

[sandbur]

This isn’t a direct answer to your question, but might help.

A fairly experienced person from north of the border feels there is a link between slower growing seedlings and late bloomer times for apples.

One other thought. Soil temperature helps determine bud break. Soil temperature at what depth? Do some rootstocks have deeper reaching roots where the temp might vary?


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[Turkey Creek]

This isn’t a direct answer to your question, but might help.

A fairly experienced person from north of the border feels there is a link between slower growing seedlings and late bloomer times for apples.

One other thought. Soil temperature helps determine bud break. Soil temperature at what depth? Do some rootstocks have deeper reaching roots where the temp might vary?


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In general my observances would seem to support that idea as well, though Arkansas Black seems to bloom a bit later and it is a pretty vigorous grower.

 

[g squared 23]

So my current experience has been different, at least with pear trees. I have gallaway, gilmer xmas from TWG on same rootstock next to Johantorp on OHF87 in the field. The first two woke up considerably earlier than the Johantorp, first two blooming while the latter just pushing some leaves.

I took scionwood from all 3 trees (along with Kieffer) and all benchgrafted to OHF97 at the same time. You can see Gallaway, Gilmer Xmas and Kieffer well ahead of the Johantorp despite all grafted to the same rootstock the same day. So assumed the variety had more to do with when it breaks dormancy as opposed to the rootstock.

Now this is one example, but it’s interesting to experiment more going forward.

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[g squared 23]

Johantorp

Gallaway


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