deepsleep
5 year old buck +
Here are a few more pictures this AM showing rootstock comparisons. The previous picture showed the south side of my pond. On the west side, we planted crabapple seedling from Coldstream and "protected" them with mesh cages. You can see the south side wire cages in the distance.
As soon as early fall rolled around, a small buck thrashed every single seedling

We put wire cages on these and let them grow for a few years. Most had tiny fruit, so I topworked all but one sometime around 2016. They grew extremely fast and fruited within a couple of years. Here is one of those trees 2 years ago (Arkansas Black, I think). These trees haven't gotten nearly as much care the last few years, but if you ignore the suckers, you can see where the tree was topworked.
One more pic from the last 2 years that shows how different varieties have different levels of dwarfing, even on the same rootstock. On the back right corner of the pond are Violi on Anton, which are huge. As you move to the left, they are all M7 rootstock trees. The first 3 are the smallest, they are Centennial Crab. Then there are 4 Chestnut Crab, which are a little larger, followed by Galarina, which is a good bit larger. The last 2 trees (out of view) are Florina Querina on M7. They are close in size to Galarina, perhaps slightly smaller.

As soon as early fall rolled around, a small buck thrashed every single seedling

We put wire cages on these and let them grow for a few years. Most had tiny fruit, so I topworked all but one sometime around 2016. They grew extremely fast and fruited within a couple of years. Here is one of those trees 2 years ago (Arkansas Black, I think). These trees haven't gotten nearly as much care the last few years, but if you ignore the suckers, you can see where the tree was topworked.

One more pic from the last 2 years that shows how different varieties have different levels of dwarfing, even on the same rootstock. On the back right corner of the pond are Violi on Anton, which are huge. As you move to the left, they are all M7 rootstock trees. The first 3 are the smallest, they are Centennial Crab. Then there are 4 Chestnut Crab, which are a little larger, followed by Galarina, which is a good bit larger. The last 2 trees (out of view) are Florina Querina on M7. They are close in size to Galarina, perhaps slightly smaller.
