Rootstocks have historically mainly been selected for their characteristics with respect to soil (drought or waterlogging tolerance, pH tolerance. dwarfing ability etc) and certainly have a part to play. Dwarfing rootstocks work by having a smaller and shallower root system which is likely to be more drought prone as dry spells get more intense - maybe we should be more wary of using them in the future?
I was wondering how much does the rootstock affect the climate resilience of apple trees. As many are grafted onto the same ones, is it worth/are you already experimenting with creating new varieties to see if they are tougher?
When I read this a few days back I didn't think it would impact me up in Scotland but lo, this morning I spotted two blossoms on an apple tree on my land. I confess, I'm enjoying the milder weather but these impacts - not so much. It'll be interesting to see how it fares when the colder weather kicks in
This is an excellent follow-up to the piece in agroforestry news some years ago, thank you for sharing your work, as always. I'm looking forward to exploring which varieties could be useful for London and the SE.
really interesting, but what a challenge. I was wondering about varieties grown in north west Spain, Galicia, where the (wet and windy) climate is similar but warmer - at the moment - to the south west of England. Tattwa
Hi Tattwa, yes it's possible Galician varieties would also do well. Maybe I should look at them too, but an issue would be that there are far fewer Spanish varieties at Brogdale so accessing them is going to be difficult ....
Rootstocks have historically mainly been selected for their characteristics with respect to soil (drought or waterlogging tolerance, pH tolerance. dwarfing ability etc) and certainly have a part to play. Dwarfing rootstocks work by having a smaller and shallower root system which is likely to be more drought prone as dry spells get more intense - maybe we should be more wary of using them in the future?
I was wondering how much does the rootstock affect the climate resilience of apple trees. As many are grafted onto the same ones, is it worth/are you already experimenting with creating new varieties to see if they are tougher?
When I read this a few days back I didn't think it would impact me up in Scotland but lo, this morning I spotted two blossoms on an apple tree on my land. I confess, I'm enjoying the milder weather but these impacts - not so much. It'll be interesting to see how it fares when the colder weather kicks in
This is an excellent follow-up to the piece in agroforestry news some years ago, thank you for sharing your work, as always. I'm looking forward to exploring which varieties could be useful for London and the SE.
really interesting, but what a challenge. I was wondering about varieties grown in north west Spain, Galicia, where the (wet and windy) climate is similar but warmer - at the moment - to the south west of England. Tattwa
Hi Tattwa, yes it's possible Galician varieties would also do well. Maybe I should look at them too, but an issue would be that there are far fewer Spanish varieties at Brogdale so accessing them is going to be difficult ....
Fascinating as ever, and totally agree about adapting creatively