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simon_grow

Increased growth and precocity through multiple rootstocks

simon_grow
12 years ago

Hey everyone, thanks to ohiojay, I've been reading up on using multiple rootstocks to greatly accelerate the growth of fruit trees. I've read many of the articles from Bernie Dizon's website but can't find any detailed information on his site regarding when, where, type of rootstock, how low/high to inarch, etc...

Bernie does post several pictures of normal trees Vs. multiple rootstock trees and the multiple rootstock trees look twice as large as the normal trees. Bernie also mentions that the trees fruit earlier and bear more fruit compared to the normal trees.

Because Mangoes grow so slow and stay relatively small here in SoCal, I decided I will grow up some seedlings and inarch them to my grafted trees. I will also grow up some Lychee seedlings next to my in-ground air layers and attempt to inarch them in 1-2 years. Lychee air layers have a notoriously shallow root system and I hope that by giving it one or more tap roots, I can overcome the slow growth caused by wind blistered leaves and poor nutrient/water uptake by the shallow roots of young air layers.

By inarching seedlings onto my Mango, Lychees and possibly other fruit trees, I hope to not only increase growth and precocity but also increase drought tolerance, decrease susceptibility to disease and perhaps prevent my trees from being blown over in strong winds.

I imagine that, especially for lychees and especially in SoCal, inarching multiple rootstocks onto air layered Lychees may greatly increase growth by allowing the tree to uptake the nutrients and water during critical times of growth. Here in SoCal, we get windy Santa Anna winds that mutilates the leaves of our lychee trees. Even when Santa Anna conditions are not present, we often have dry windy weather that dessicates the leaves of our trees. With multiple rootstocks, I hope my trees will be able to maximize growth during non windy conditions.

Simon

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