Hae you seen this stuff on own root fruit trees and the coppice
orchard idea?

This project is based on the formerly unpublished work of Hugh Ermen,
formerly of Brogdale Horticultural Experimental Station and now
retired and breeding new varieties of fruit trees. Hugh discovered
that there are several advantages in growing apples on their own roots
[OR], i.e. not grafted onto a rootstock. (See below for pamphlets by
Hugh Ermen)

The advantages a -

better health - although not altering the basic susceptibility of the
variety to disease -

fruit development is typical of the variety, giving:-

best possible flavour

best storage life -

typical fruit size for the variety -

best overall fruit quality - best fruit set, given adequate
pollination.

fruit from OR trees have more seeds, indicating increased fertility.

It is highly likely that the degree of self-fertility is increased.


The only disadvantage of OR trees is that most varieties are more
vigorous than is usually wanted. This means that trees may make a lot
of wood at the expense of fruit bud production, giving big trees that
take a long time to come into crop. Conventionally this vigour would
be controlled by grafting onto a dwarfing rootstock. With OR trees a
number of traditional techniques are used to induce early cropping.
Once cropping begins the tree's energies are channeled into fruit
production and growth slows down to a controllable level.

for more try http://members.lycos.co.uk/orft