Did you get the G890 goldrush from Cummins? I've had trouble finding that rootstock, and it always intrigued me. I am curious as to your feedback from it (may take a few years to get any however)

Sean,

Yes, the G890 Goldrush was from Cummins. I didn't pick it based on the rootstock, if I can remember. I think I wanted a thicker caliper tree (this was a 11/16"), and it just happened to be a G890. I didn't want any of my trees to be super small (i.e. G65, G41) or close to standard size (too long to start producing). Just about all my selections were 40-70% of standard.

Based on your login name, are you in NY state? I was wondering if one could go to their nursery in Ithaca and pick up some of their product, or are they strictly an online/catalog outfit.

Yes, it's just a 3 foot whip with some leaves on it now, with no branches, so guess I'll have to wait a couple of years, I guess. Am excited about seeing how all my trees do, but will have to wait and see.

subdood,

Pecan grower from Western KY here (AL native, so I know what you mean about liking 'em). You should join the KY Nutgrowers Assn. KNGA

Only one of the varieties you planted that I have growing here is Lakota. Hasn't produced nuts for me yet, as I just grafted it a couple of years ago. Lots of pecans that'll likely do OK for you - but I'm not sure that the Southern varieties you selected are gonna fare well - but you may be OK.

I've been taking some good northern/midwestern pecan varieties to a friend in Bath Co.... so far, he's got (Converse)Major, Posey, Kanza, and Oswego growing. Will be a few years before they bear nuts, but I have no doubt that all of them will be hardy and productive there.

Lucky,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I know the southern varieties may not fare too well here. I did try to find some Major, Posey or Greenriver varieties, which should be better for my location, but they're hard to find online. Nolin River Nursery is about the only site that offers these types, but they were sold out. So I went with the ones I could get at the time. I probably ordered them too late (March), so my chance of getting what I wanted were diminished. But, we'll see how the ones I do have pan out. Might get lucky with them.

I'm a few hours away from Cummins, I'm sure they would let people drive up there and pick out what they want. they probably have some larger caliper trees for sale for pickup as well. (just a guess)

With all those different rootstocks mixed together how did you end up spacing them in your orchard? just curious

also have you decided how your going to train them? central leader? modified? tall spindle?

I'm also concerned about your experiences with the G890 rootstock. I Planted 22 Honeycrisp trees a week ago with that rootstock. It just was the best option available to me at the time of selection. I've been plagued with uprooting Apple trees once they set fruit. Even though this rootstock should be selfstanding I pounded a stake next to each new tree while planting.

dood,

I'm hedging my bets - I've got mostly northern/midwestern pecan varieties, but also have a few Southern types(including Stuart & Mahan, for nostalgic reasons) - and a few ultra-northern selections.

Any idea what seed-strain the understock is beneath those pecans? There's some risk of losing the whole deal if you get another winter like '14-15, and they're on Southern pecan understock. Sure would be best if they're on something like Giles, Major, etc. You might wanna contact the nursery and see if they can give you that info.

Sean,

I kind of based my spacing of all these different rootstocks on what I found on orangepippintrees.com. For the G16's. I gave them 12 feet, for all the others, about 15 feet. That's prob more than they need, but I didn't want to worry about them crowding each other out. I thought 15 feet for the 40-70% of standard rootstocks was plenty, especially if I prune them properly. I hope I'm not wrong! By the way, the spacing between rows is about 18 feet.

The site I listed was very informative about all the different rootstocks. I based a lot of my variety selections on what they had to say. I wanted a good mix of modern and heirloom disease resistant trees, with some good russets thrown in there. I had to get the other apple trees from other places as Cummins didn't have any of those in stock. The reason I got a couple of Grimes is that people around here rave about them, and it's a local variety, from West Virginia. One of my Grimes had already put out blossoms, and it's just a 3 foot whip. I pinched those off, and left all the leaves. I hope those blossoms weren't supposed to become new branches!

I don't know yet how I'm going to train them, still reading up on that. But, prob leaning to a central leader type. Still learning as I go. A few months ago, I knew nothing about rootstocks, grafting, fireblight, etc. Again, you or anyone, please let me know if I'm doing this right. It's a big investment and I want to do it right.

Barrie

Wow, that's a lot of Honeycrisps! Are you like a commercial orchardist? What were the rootstocks you had that blew over? Did you stake all your trees? I wonder where you are and your soil type.

I temporarily staked all my whips with 4 foot wooden tobacco stakes but have some 6 foot T-posts that will go in soon. I hope they'll work with these rootstocks. I have quite a few on M7, hopefully those won't have to be staked forever. I base that on on our soil, which is somewhat rocky, but is also nice and loamy. Our farm soil varies quite a bit, depending where you are. But most of it very good, compared to that gommy black clay we dealt with in North Texas. It was hard to get anything to grow in that stuff, but I think the oppressive heat had more to do with that!

Lucky,
From what I read on the site I bought the pecans from, they're on Caddo rootstocks. Sounds like a southern type rootstock? That may not be hardy enough for our climate. All my varieties are rated to grow in zone 6, but zone 6 isn't the same in different parts of the country. Parts of New England are Z6, but pecans don't do well there.
Hope we don't see another winter

like last year, otherwise my pecans might not make it. Just curious, how were you able to get Major or Giles varieties? I looked all over the Internet and couldn't find them. Guess I'd need to find a KY nursery and go get them in person.

You mentioned you sent some trees to someone in Bath county, we are not too far from there.

I have about 100 Apple trees. The Honeycrisp that I have (3) have sold out on picked apples quickest of any other variety so I'm banking on this being a variety of the future. I believe most of my trees are the EMLA26 rootstock. Some have been staked in almost every direction possible and still manage to uproot. I believe my soil is Hagerstown silt loam but it is very rocky. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a bunch of Apple trees laying over after a windy storm.

Barrie-

Honeycrisp sure seems to be one of the most popular varieties nowadays. From what I've heard it seems like a lot of orchards charge a premium on them, plus they seem to be higher in the stores as well. We're trying one of them (on a G210) as my wife likes them.

What other varieties are you growing and how have they done in your location?

I looked up Hagerstown silt loam, and it seems that that is kind of what we have here. It's kind of silty/rocky for the top eight inches or so, and a tan clay under that. We're on the side of a slope and have water veins running under our soil. I say that because if you dig deep enough, you hit moist clay. You are probably not that far from us in location or soil type, correct? We're in the western Appalachian foothills.

I planted our trees in a north-south orientation, and put the stakes on the south side of the trees as our predominant winds are from the south. Our apple trees are not too exposed to wind, as there is a hill with trees going up from behind them to the west, and a screen of trees on the north side of the property.

From what I read on G890's, they seem to be able to not need a lot of support, but I am definitely not saying that from a position of vast knowledge.

This site seemed to have some interesting info on various rootstocks, you may have seen it though:

http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/commercial-tree-fruit-production/cultivars-and-rootstocks/apple-rootstocks

I also got some good information about rootstocks from a UK site:

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ho/ho82/ho82.pdf

My orchard has changed over the years. I used to have many MacIntosh, Red Delicious and Golden Del., but people just don't and those varieties anymore. My favorites are Smokehouse, Jonagold and Suncrisp. I have poor results with the Gala and Fuji trees that I have, probably due to location. Nittany is a good seller in PENN STATE country here. I also have a few Pristine, Liberty, Mutsu, Northern Spy, Rome, Ida Red, Jonafree and Winesap. Most of these are 25 years old or older and I've been cutting more down every year for different reasons.

After looking over the descriptions of different rootstocks I can understand the issues more. I used to have 2 Enterprise trees but both snapped off at the graft. One of those had almost uprooted as well. I miss that variety because they were one of my best keeping apples. The had no flavor when picked but the flavor improved after storage.

Barrie,

Since you have so many years of harvesting samples, I'd like to know your opinions on the Liberty, Winesap and Pristine as those are some of the ones I'm trying out. I'd also like your comments on Jonagold and Suncrisp, as those are some I'd maybe like to try next year along with perhaps a Spigold, Kidd's Orange Red, Winter Banana and Summer Rambo. Also would like to add a couple more peach and tart cherry trees. Sweet cherries apparently don't do so well in these parts.

I considered an Enterprise, since it's supposed to be pretty disease resistant, but decided against it when I read about it not being too flavorful and have a thick skin. So, I picked something else. Smokehouse sounds like a good old variety, how is that Apple?

In that Penn State link it mentioned something about M26 trees breaking at the graft under high winds, so maybe that's something inherent with those rootstocks? I don't know if all your trees were/are on M26, but was wondering about that. Considering your trees are pretty old, maybe these newer Geneva rootstocks weren't around then? Though I did read that the G30 might have some weak graft unions with certain varieties, don't know if your considering that rootstock. It sounds like those G890's would be a pretty good RS for your Honeycrisp's.

OK, guess I'll head outside and check on the "orchard", while the weather's decent, it's been pretty dreary and rainy the last few days. But, I did hear a rumble of thunder, though.