There is nothing quite like the joy of eating a fresh apple. Growing your own can open up a whole array of choices in varieties, and can enhance your home landscape. Perhaps it is in a soil where the tree's rootstock isn't suitable, or the rootstock isn't sufficiently cold hardy. Knowing about apple rootstocks, asking the nursery which rootstock a tree is grafted on, choosing the rootstock most compatible with your site, and following the best cultural practices for each rootstock will help the ecological gardener to ensure that his or her trees will be healthy and productive.
Rootstocks are one of the unique aspects of apple growing.
There are about 100 rootstocks for the major tree-fruits, and more than 20 for apple. In this bulletin we describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of apple rootstocks commonly available from fruit-tree nurseries. This is necessary because the seeds of each apple are the result of pollination from a different apple tree species or variety. Rootstocks are usually necessary for grafting and propagation of apple scion varieties. In past times, seedlings that sprouted naturally in pomace piles around cider mills were often dug up, and buds from known scion varieties were grafted onto these seedlings for planting new orchards.