"Andrew G" wrote in message
...
I was always taught that a sucker is a shoot coming from the rootstock.
Just because you have a shoot coming from the base of a plant, that isn't
grafted, and shoot is coming from above ground level, well that would be a
shoot wouldn't it?
Just trying to clarify it in a discussion I had with someone.
They claim that a shoot coming from the base of a maple (not grafted), is
a
sucker and it means the tree must be diseased.
Any comments?
Also, link to a website explaining this would be great.
Cheers
Andrew

To me, a sucker is any shoot that is not wanted on the developing
seedling/tree. So your example of a shoot from the base would be a sucker,
because we only want one stem. Similarly on the grafted portion, we only
want one leader shoot to develop.

In the avocado nursery industry we find that avocadoes regularly send up
numerous shoots from the seed. All exept the strongest are considered
suckers, and cut off. Similarly on the graft, there will be numerous shoots
develop. Only one is wanted, so once there is a reasonable amount of growth
on the graft, we go through and remove all shoots except one.

I know nothing about maple seedlings, but would be extremely surprised to
learn that additonal shoots emerging from the rootstock is a sign of
disease.