Yes. I know that in the case of cherries, the reason they are all grafted is because if they are not the tree can take a very long time before it begins to produce fruit.

Ultimately, I would imagine that an apple grown on its own-roots would grow bigger and could have a much longer lifespan. A 60-year old apple tree that was not grafted can grow to be quite large, the size of a small oak tree.

Oh okay thanks but are apples hard to grow from cutting?

Trees are grafted so that you get the variety you want. Planting a seed from say a red delicious apple will not give you a red delicious apple tree. Most apples do not root easily fom cuttings. Much easier to graft than to root a cutting. You can graft onto seedling rootstock which will give you a full size tree of the variety you want.

T is correct. If you do not graft a scion...you will most likely produce an inferior quality fruit tree.

Oh okay then

Wait so can an apple be grafted onto a pear?

The cutting is very hard with Apple, it's easier to graft !!! Several rootstock are available...the control the size and of the grafted tree

Cuttings are difficult as TurmeyCreekTrees mentioned. The harder part is that most apples rooted in that way have no disease tolerance, height restrictiion, they grow to slow or fast just to name a few problems

Oh really that's pretty bad then. How would I get a hold of root stocks?

I should also mention if you still want to root them the answer is yes you can. Get a heat mat to keep the soil or sand warm, and rooting gel like clonex. Fill a bunch of small pots with wet sand and stick a pencil in each pot and make a hole in the sand. Dip the apple cuttings in the rooting gel and stick them in the sand. Turn a jar over the top of the cuttings in the sand to increase humidity. lay a grow light on top of the jars after you get the cuttings placed in the sand and push ssnd up around them. The hest mat unter the pots keeps the sand warm and with thst a d tbe rooting gel about 50% will root in several months. I also grow apples from seed etc at times which i realize is not the best idea but at times its fun just to do stuff. Grafting and using rootstocks is a far better way to go. Mm111 are fine. Try a co mpany like this one http://www.cumminsnursery.com/index.html

http://shop.cumminsnursery.com/shop/rootstocks

There are plenty of other places out there thst sell a few rootstocks if you need them. If you want a hundred try lawyer nursery.

To answer the question "can apple be grafted onto pear?", that is a complicated question. The short answer is yes, but the two species have a poor graft compatibility and it can be hard to get the graft to take, and even if the graft does take, it may eventually succumb 4 years later and wither. I've never heard of anyone successfully getting apple fruit from such grafts, but it could be possible. An apple grafted onto pear would also be an ultra-dwarf tree, if it survived.

It can be done as parker25mv mentioned. Winter Nellis would be a good apple to graft to a pear if you want to try it. You can graft other apples on winter Nellis and the concept is called inter stock or inter stem grafting. The idea is winter Nellis is compatible with a lot of things.