Can anyone tell me what's going on with these apple tree trunks? :).

Feb 19, 2026 06:06:36

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could tell me what's going on with the trunks of these apple trees? There's no problem. The trees are very healthy and productive. I just look at the growth and think that it's very odd. I think about it a lot.

Is there a graft incompatibility between the root stock and graft? Just the type of graft? Is this a common occurrence and are there trees like this in any orchard? Only a couple of rows are like this. I'm not sure of the tree variety right now and I have no way of knowing what the root stock is, but it is a dwarfing variety.

All of the trees in the row are like this. They all were planted at the same time and are of the same variety.

Thanks for any replies.
Have a great day. :)

Feb 19, 2026 07:07:41

Looks like the rootstock grows faster than the graft tree.

We grow a lot of our fruit from seed and graft if they don't taste good. This helps the orchard be strong if changes like odd weather or other stresses come to the farm. They might have done the same.

Usually we getthe opposite where the rootstock grows so much slower than thengraft and we get a massive tree sitting on a tiny base.

Feb 19, 2026 07:12:01

r ransom wrote:Looks like the rootstock grows faster than the graft tree.

It does look like that doesn't it? weird, you would think it was more likely to be the other way round.

Feb 19, 2026 14:59:41

r ransom wrote:Looks like the rootstock grows faster than the graft tree.

We grow a lot of our fruit from seed and graft if they don't taste good. This helps the orchard be strong if changes like odd weather or other stresses come to the farm. They might have done the same.

Usually we getthe opposite where the rootstock grows so much slower than thengraft and we get a massive tree sitting on a tiny base.

I'm glad that I asked because I never really thought about it in that direction. Interesting. Thank you.

My father in law passed and I never asked him when I should have.

I'm sure that he bought the trees like this since he didn't start grafting until much later in his life (I would guess that the trees are at least 20 years old judging from other trees that have died and which I cut down.

It's odd because he had of these trees staked like he was expecting a weaker root system. They do seem to be weakly supported and most are leaning in one direction or another.

I was watching a video on interstem grafting the other night. This is where you use a stronger root stock along with a dwarfing section and then the final tree. I wonder if this might be the case with these?

More to wonder about I guess. :)

Thank you

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