Here is the next round of multiple rootstock trees. In case you haven’t been following my threads, I’ve made a lot of progress in regards to finding out what does and doesn’t work.
For this round of grafts, ive decided to add only one additional rootstock because having more than one additional rootstock only increases the growth by a little and doesn’t warrant the time and materials to justify the slight increase in growth.
For the additional rootstock, I chose to use the Puerto Rican Turpentine rootstock suggested to me my Leo Manuel and so far, it is showing exceptional growth compared to all other rootstocks I’ve tested so far.
I am innarching seedlings from top tier polyembryonic varieties such as Orange Sherbet, Lemon Zest and Sweet Tart along with a few Monoembryonic varieties. I’m using these polyembryonic varieties because the clonal nature of the non zygotic seedlings should give me plants nearly identical to the parent variety without inheriting the florigenic hormones circulating in mature scion wood.
I’m avoiding mature scion wood because my DSG( Double Stone Graft) experiments taught me that the cold weather in my marginal climate is too strong a stimulus and will undoubtedly promote flowering even in seedlings within the first winter.
By utilizing top tier polyembryonic seedlings, I can create robust, strong double rootstock trees that grow at an accelerated rate due to having multiple rootstocks and I avoid unnecessary expenditure of energy which is normally wasted by flowering and holding onto fruit. Instead of flowering my CSMR trees have gone into a dormant state in Winter and then flushed with vigor once warm weather arrives. I can imagine that all the energy that would have gone into flowering is now saved up and stored in the tree, potentially allowing the young tree to push one or more additional vegetative flushes.
Here is an Orange Sherbet seedling innarched with one additional PR Turpentine rootstock. I will allow the grafted area to heal over at which point, the callous tissue would have expanded and started to split the parafilm. Once the grafted region has completely healed, I will top the PR Turpentine seedling leaving only the selected seedling with two intact root systems.
Lemon Zest
Sweet Tart
Edward Seedling, Edward is a cross between a polyembryonic and Monoembryonic Mango and anecdotal evidence suggests it may have slightly better resistance to both Anthracnose and Powdery Mildew. This seedling will be grafted with a Lemon Zest scion in the future to see if it is able to fruit in locations heavily infested with Powdery Mildew.
Simon