My Stool Bed Experience

[greyphase]

Last spring I planted a B118 rootstock and a G202 rootstock at the edge of the garden. I cut them off flush to the ground and as the sprouts came up I put a 5 gallon bucket without a bottom over them and added sawdust several times over the summer. The B118 sent up 2 shoots and the G202 sent up 4 shoots. Today I removed the buckets and sawdust and cut off the shoots. I'm really happy with the B118 shoots, hopefully as the "mother" plant's roots grow she'll send up more shoots.

The G202 shoots weren't near as nice with only one looking like a grafting candidate. I'll pot up the other ones and see what they do.

I had 2 B118 grafts fail last year so I planted them along the edge of the garden to expand my stool bed and get a few free rootstocks.

 

[leexrayshady]

when they emerged did you cover the whole shoot up or just till the top leaf?

 

[Turkey Creek]

Those b118 do look good. I wonder why the one G202 has so much more root growth than the others? I tried the same thing with a "manchurri" as a rootstock mother just for experiments sake. It performed very poorly, looked like your poor G202s. Going to try some hardwood cuttings fom B118 and see how they root.

 

[greyphase]

Nice job Greyphase.

Those B118 look nice.
Any chance you could've left those G202 alone for another year or cut them back again?

If I had known that they looked so poorly yes I would have left them grow another year. It's a learning experience. I'll see how this years shoots grow and make my decision whether or not to cut them next spring by their diameter. I remember the G202 rootstocks that I got from Cummins last spring didn't have a whole lot of roots to them.

 

[greyphase]

when they emerged did you cover the whole shoot up or just till the top leaf?

I left two sets of leaves above the sawdust and added through the summer as they grew until I had about 6-8 inches of sawdust and then I stopped adding. The shoots themselves are about 2 feet tall.

 

[dipper]

Those 202 will b fine graft away

 

[chickenlittle]

You should get more from the B118 next year. I think a stoolbed should produce for 5 to 10 years, possibly longer if you are not expecting commercial yields. We don't talk about patents much but most of the Geneva rootstocks have patent protection. The Geneva patents are an interesting read. Here is the G.202 patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US20060130195. Those G.202 would probably do well if planted or potted now and bud grafted in late summer.

I got excited about doing a stoolbed but decided I was not patient enough. Instead I ordered a bunch rootstock this spring to bench graft and to plant for future grafting. I am thinking of trying to propagate the Novole rootstock by layering and then stooling. I do not know of anyone selling Novole rootstock but budwood and scionwood are available through the GRIN. After I get that established, I'll try to layer some limbs and see I can get it to root. That I can use to establish a stoolbed.