by Mark Weaver In last year’s ranetka article, I voiced concerns about the hardiness of the ranetka seedlings many of us have been using for rootstock. I have since found additional information that helps to answer the question of what “ranetka” is, where it comes from, and how much variability we can expect. Lawyers…

(Some Inconvenient Observations about Apple Rootstocks) By Mark Weaver — December 2012 In the last 20 years, productive apple trees and productive home orchards have proliferated in Southcentral Alaska to an extent once thought impossible. In large measure, this has happened because of the willingness of a few Alaskan and Canadian growers—real pioneers in the…

By Kevin Irvin Most commercially sold Apple Trees with a Hardy Standard size rootstock are budded onto M. Antonovka. Baileys Nursery a wholesale grower for the Nursery Trade uses Antonovka as well as Columbia, Borowinka and others as a Hardy rootstock. Most Nursery (Greenhouse) retail outlets here in Alaska commonly buy from Baileys among others.…

  By Bernie Nikolai   I’ve always felt that the magnificent Siberian Crab has received a “bum rap” over the years. Here we have a tree that can take -50°F with zero snowcover, and come out smiling the next spring without any injury! It has a tough corky bark which makes it virtually immune from…

BOOK REVIEW   Up until a few years ago, there was not much published literature on apple growing that dealt specifically with the problems we face in Alaska. La Culture de la Pomme dans le Nord (Growing Apples in the North, 271 pages), published in 1992 by Eddy R. Dugas, is just the book we…

By Pat Holloway   “Softwood shoots of M.9 and MM. 106 were banded with Velcro for up to 20 days before cuttings were propagated. Banding 10-20 days increased percent rooting and number of roots/cutting and the longer the banding the greater the effect. In M.9, banding resulted in a higher survival rate and increased new…