There are genetic dwarf apple trees like Apple Babe, but I don't know the purpose of your request. I would not want an inferior varietiy just because it stays small. It would seem better to plant a choice variety on a dwarfing rootstock or use culture that keeps the tree small rather than tolerate mediocre fruit, which is what my naturally dwarf peaches produced.

Applenut

Dustin:

Columnar apple trees, which are notably dwarfed in the horizontal dimension, and somewhat less so in the vertical, are widely sold by Stark Brothers and any number of larger nurseries. They are primarily intended for pot culture, but some people put them in the ground in tight spaces. Much of the feedback I have seen on these small trees has been negative, ranging from poor fruit set to poor flavor and quality. But I have also seen a few cases of people who were happy with them. Personally, I wouldn't consider them unless I were desperate to conserve space. If you want to grow better varieties, you could, conceivably, graft additional varieties to a columnar tree, but I am not sure what the result would be.

The Northstar sour cherry is a genetic dwarf that can easily be kept under 8 feet tall. It produces excellent fruit, if you like sour cherries for culinary purposes. I don't know of any genetically dwarfed sweet cherries, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. The several widely sold varieties of genetically dwarfed peaches are usually reported to produce inferior fruit, and seem best adapted to warmer climates such as Southern California. I don't think they are very winter hardy. There are a fair number of native, bush-type plums, such as the beach plum, that are widely available and produce good to excellent fruit. They are quite winter hardy in the bargain.

My personal preference for size control is the same as Applenut's -- dwarfing rootstocks, grafted with the best possible fruiting varieties. If you are going to grow fruit in the back yard, you might as well shoot for the best quality possible within the limitations of your climate.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Jellyman,

I also don't know exactly what would happen if you grafted a typical variety to a columnar, but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't result in that new variety growing in a columnar habit.

If it did, I'm sure all of the major catalogs would be offering columnar apples of more desirable varieties.

From what I have read when stock from standard trees are grafted onto genetic dwarfs the scion grows at full vigor. The root stock from genetic dwarf do not have dwarf root systems. This is what makes them grow so well in some situations. The down side is their fruit is not as nice as that of standard stock. My guess is that Columnar apple do not have dwarfing root stock so scions grafted onto them will take off too.

The book "Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally" by Robert Kourik published in 1986 talks about genetic dwarf as the trees of the future as well as other books I have read. So I was wandering if there has been much progress in the last 20 years. Since you all have not heard of a lot of good genetic dwarfs available yet and the catalogs I have seen seem to all have trees grafted onto dwarfing root stock I guess the answer in not much progress has been made. This leads me to focus on finding trees that are hardy to my growing conditions - high, dry, cold desert with spring storms and frost with dwarfing root stock. www.raintreenursery.com has dwarfing root stock which I will try to work with since I donÂt have enough room for lots of standard trees. Our lot is 1/3 acre so I have enough room for a lot of dwarf trees and with grafting several types on each tree I hope to get some diversity.
There seems to be bits if information all over the place about tree hardiness, bloom time, use, flavor, etc. which I am looking through to decide which types are best for me. For any tree in must be hardy here first. We eat our fruit fresh so a cider apple for example does not interest me much. Heirloom fruit is talked up in many books for its diverse flavor and texture so if I find some that will do well here I would like to try it. Genetic dwarfs and columnar types are interesting for sure. If you all have any recommendations or ideas on types of fruit trees to try iI would love to hear them. Thanks for the info, I will keep hunting. Dustin

Here is a link that might be useful: rain tree nursery

Interesting--would a genetic dwarf have the hardiness of a standard tree while retaining the smaller size?

In pie cherries, Evans (also called Bali) is called a natural dwarf. I have had one for about 5 years and it does have a very slow growth rate, though it sets lots of fruit quickly. It looks like a good candidate to remain quite a small tree, and if not, shouldn't take much pruning to keep it small if desired.

Lapins sweet cherry is also often mentioned as a natural dwarf/semi-dwarf. No experience with it, though.

Lastly, as long as the tree isn't an extremely vigorous grower, you should be able to keep it to a dwarf size with sufficient pruning. Jellyman is a big proponent of summer pruning, and if you combine keeping new growth short and periodically pruning back older branches, you should be able to keep your fruit trees to a fairly dwarf stature.

We have Scarlet Sentinal columnar apple on M7 rootstock; it's fairly decent and fruits heavily. But in an even smaller amount of space I have Williams' Pride on M27, which is excellent and fruits heavily. I have Pink Lady on seedling rootstock that I summer prune to stay espaliered 5' high, and it is outstanding and fruits heavily.

A genetic dwarf means that the scionwood is the dwarfing part, not the rootstock. Hewe's Crab will make a much smaller tree on M7 rootstock than a more vigorous variety like Northern Spy.

There's no reason you can't have the apple variety you want on any size tree you want, as they respond wonderfully to most types of training and pruning.

Applenut

The only places I know of for genetic dwarfs are catologs.
Try Raintree Nursery or Stark Bros. Genetic dwarfs are natural dwarfs usually 8 feet or less without dwarfing rootstock. I only know of peaches, nectarines and there used to be an apricot available.