Stoolbed
- Thread starter greyphase
- Start date
Merle Hawggard
5 year old buck +
They look great! Are they last year's tops? I shoved several in the ground last fall that are starting to leaf out and wondered if they've really put roots out or not.
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greyphase
5 year old buck +
It's simple to do. Just plant a rootstock in the corner of your garden and let it grow for a year to get established. Then the next spring cut it off at ground level. Cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon plastic bucket and set over it. Several shoots should start to grow off the original root. When they get 8-10 inches tall I add 4-5 inches of sawdust to the bucket. As they grow taller through the summer keep adding sawdust. Then the next spring pull the bucket off and brush away the sawdust and cut the shoots off close to the original root. Set the bucket back on and repeat the process through the summer. Here's a video on growing your own rootstocks.
greyphase
5 year old buck +
I planted an entire rootstock. I've never tried planting cuttings.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Atta-boy, Grey ........... plant some mental " seeds " to get us cloning rootstocks now. Another set of treble hooks set into us. Where does the addiction end ???
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Hey Grey do you think you can do it in a root trapper bag?
SmallChunk
5 year old buck +
I think I'm going to try and find out!
greyphase
5 year old buck +
Yes that should work. In the video I posted the rootstock that he harvested the shoots from was growing in a pot.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
The start of my rootstock production. This spring, I cut off two 3 year old P18 that managed to fail bud grafted 2 years in a row. We'll see if they survive and push up suckers. I also started a stoolbed of Bud490 which is a MM106 sized tree with red leaves/wood that I got scionwood for from the USDA GRIN. B490 is supposed to root from hardwood cuttings but can be stooled too. I grafted B490 onto B118, M111, and M7. The B118 was planted in my orchard for future cuttings. Rather then wait to successfully root a cutting, I started the stoolbed from the M7 and M111. I planted them laying down in a shallow trench and expect the B490 to root along the length of the trees. I arranged so both trees had several limbs sticking up out of the ground to help fuel growth this year. B490 will be easy to separate from any M7 and M111 suckers that will have green leaves. To my surprise, both trees are flowering. I guess I'll pick those off if any fruit sets. I need to flag them soon too so my father doesn't mow them off. Any M111 I get I would use too but the M7 probably gets tossed. I did not have a well prepared bed for these, just broke the sod and planted.
greyphase
5 year old buck +
Here in Pa many times I have to haul in dirt because of all the rocks I dig up when planting trees.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
That isn't rocky. It's an old field. Most of the rocks were picked out years ago.
Prof.Kent
5 year old buck +
Ooooo! (gag! Milk out nose) Hahahahahahaaa.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I harvested my first 3 Bud 490 rootstocks this weekend. Beginning of last august, I realized I ought to try rooting them. I grabbed what was handy, some milk jugs and some fine stony/sandy black stuff from a ditch. I checked these this weekend to see how they did, found some decent rooting and decided to harvest them and pot them for the summer.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I always end up cutting my rootstock back 6" or so, last year I tried rooting the tops. I dipped them in root hormone and planted them in corner of garden...a few of the pear survived but I didnt like the root growth on them enough to use them for grafting.
I like the looks of the bucket method, will try that next year.
I like the looks of the bucket method, will try that next year.
Chickenlittle: Thanks for reminding me. I have a bunch of Honeycrisp scions in my frig to bury in potting mix for a week and then pull them out to see which ones have grown roots. If my results are the same as last time, all the Honeycrisp scions that are at least 1/4" caliper and at least 7" long will have grown one-inch long roots after being buried for a week such that I can pot them and get some Honeycrisp rootstock stooling going on here. Last time, I failed to water them frequently enough and they died from thirst while I was out of town, so I will need to start over from scratch.
BuckSnort
5 year old buck +
The M7 rootstock I tried worked great. For whatever reason, I had a couple of 3 year old B118 rootstock that I cut off, they stump sprouted initially and then just died. I am going to try a couple more with trench layering. I have a 4 year old M111 rootstock I’m going to cut off this spring, I’m guessing it will sprout back well. I like the idea of messing around with these but in reality have found that I wouldn’t want to count on them, it’s a pretty slow process to get them established and growing well. Especially if you are able to buy rootstock in bulk at a decent price.
