Scionwood

We sell scionwood in two ways:

• By the stick: One 8" stick can graft 3 or 4 trees.
• By the foot: For orchardists grafting large numbers of trees of a particular variety, we also offer scionwood by the foot (minimum order of 10 feet). In our own nursery work, we are usually able to graft 6–8 trees from one foot of scionwood.

Storage: You can graft right away or store scionwood for later use. It will keep quite well for several weeks in the fridge or in a cold dark basement, root cellar or shed. Storing scionwood close to freezing temps can be okay, but the very cold temperatures in a freezer will kill it. Scions will also die if they dry out or are stored without special protection from ripening veggies or fruits. We recommend triple plastic bagging your scionwood. There is no need to dampen the scionwood or to insert wet paper towels before bagging it, as this can lead to mold.

What does a person do with scionwood?

Scions are twigs. They have no roots and will not grow if you plant them. They are cuttings from dormant branch tips, intended for spring grafting.

Is grafting easy? Yes, once you get the hang of it. Experienced grafters often have 100% “take” with their grafting. Beginners often have less. While you can learn to graft from a book or video, we highly recommend the old-fashioned way: find a real person to teach you. MOFGA and other organizations have grafting classes every spring. Find one near you!

• There are two general ways to graft fruit trees in spring:
• You can bench graft by grafting scionwood onto rootstock (see next page). Generally we do this indoors in late March or early April. We keep the little grafted trees packed into a bucket of damp sawdust in a warm spot in the house (77–86°) for a couple weeks to promote callus development. Then we harden them off in a colder (but not freezing) place for a week or two before planting out in nursery beds anytime from late April to mid-May. If trees have begun to leaf out before planting time, we slowly introduce them to direct sunlight before setting them out. In a couple of years when the trees are 3–6' tall, we plant them in the orchard.
• You can also topwork scionwood onto established green growth and the bark slips easily from the wood when cut, but before petal fall. The window for topworking is roughly the whole month of May in central Maine, but often can be successful for a week or so on either end.

Fedco’s Organic Growers Supply offers everything you’ll need for grafting and pruning—knives, pruners, saws, wax, tape and more.

Scionwood Collection at Fedco

Scionwood season at Fedco is a truly hopeful time. Each tiny dormant bud on every stick we ship out has the potential to become a new grafted fruit-bearing tree. Last winter we collected more than 22,000 feet of scionwood from nearly 200 varieties of apples, pears and plums! We ship about half of those scions to customers across the country: first-time grafters, orchardists, apple collectors and cidermakers alike. The rest is distributed to our local growers to propagate most of the fruit trees found in this catalog.

During the frigid days of January and February, scionwood collection is in full swing. We bundle, label and seal the wood in bags to store in our cold warehouse. In March we measure, snip and label the scions for shipping. As our founder John Bunker says, we are passing the baton.

There is no single Fedco Orchard. Over many years John and others from Fedco have built friendly relationships and collaborated with orchards around Maine. In exchange for permission to collect scionwood, we have offered grafting in the spring, pruning in the winter, or traded some trees from the Fedco inventory. A win-win for all.

We have also sourced some of our rare and difficult-to-find varieties from out-of-state orchards. For instance, Poverty Lane Orchards in NH, home of Farnum Hill Ciders, was one of the first in the Northeast to grow many of the now popular European cider apple varieties. For years they shared generously with us while we built up our own scion banks. We continue to collect rare and important varieties and graft them into our own orchards to ensure access in the future and to localize and streamline our winter scion collection.

Apples

Jump to: | Growing apple trees | Choosing a rootstock.

Choosing the Right Apple

Not sure where to start? Check out our Apple Chart!

Choosing a variety: Not every variety may be right for you. All-purpose apples are just that—they’re good for a bunch of jobs. If you're planting just one tree, perhaps start there. However, if you’re a history buff, consider the historical varieties and maybe plant one that originated nearby. If you don’t eat many apples but love pies, go for the pie apples. If you’re a dessert connoisseur, skip all the others and go for the highly flavored dessert varieties. Some are strictly for cider. Some are great to put out at the camp for summer use. Some are perfect for those who want fall fruit but don’t have a root cellar. Others keep all winter and into the following summer. Jump to: | Choosing a rootstock

• Summer apples ripen in summer, are generally crisp only for a short period, do not store well, and are often best for cooking.
• Fall apples store longer and are useful for a wide variety of purposes.
• Winter apples ripen mid to late fall, store well, and reach their best flavor after weeks, or even months, of storage.
• Dessert apples are delicious eaten raw.
• Crabapples are less than 2" in diameter. Some crabs bear edible or culinary or cider-making fruit. Some have persistent wildlife fruit that hangs on the tree for weeks or even months. Others have hardly any fruit at all. Some are beautiful ornamentals.
• Cider apples are especially suited to making fermented “hard” cider. Some cider apples are also good dessert fruit, but most are not.
• Subacid means tart!
• Russet or russeting is a skin texture (fairly common on apple varieties and on a few pears and potatoes) which looks and feels somewhat like suede.
• Bloom is a naturally occurring dust-like yeast film on the skin of some varieties of apples, plums, grapes and blueberries.

Cider Apples

Each year we offer a different assortment of the best European and American cider varieties, including new wild apple introductions from local fruit explorers and cidermakers. Many of these are NOT for fresh eating. They do however possess qualities that make them very desirable for fermented cider production.

Seedling Apples

These trees were grown from seeds, rather than grafted onto rootstock like the other apple varieties we offer.

These standard-sized trees will grow to 20–30'.

Flowering and Culinary Crabapples

A crabapple is any apple with fruit smaller than 2" in diameter. All crabs bear edible fruit, some more favorable for culinary use than others. Some fruits are persistent, hanging on the branch through winter and providing forage for robins, jays and waxwings in the early spring. The flowers, tree form and even the shape of the leaves can vary subtly or profoundly. Most are magnificent in bloom and ornamental year round, especially in winter when the leaves drop and the trees show off their interesting forms.

Growing Apples

• Soil: Adaptable, but prefers well-drained fertile soil.
• Sun: Full.
• Pollination: Requires a second variety for pollination. Any apple or crabapple blooming within a quarter mile will probably do.
• Planting and Pruning: See our planning and planting and pests and diseases pages for more information about soil prep, planting, pruning, and pest control.
• Spacing:
  • For trees on Antonovka and Bud 118 rootstock, 20–25' apart.
  • M111 semi-dwarf, 15–20' apart.
  • G890 semi-dwarf, 10–15' apart.
  • Bud 9 dwarf, 5–10' apart.

Choosing a Rootstock

Rootstock determines the size, longevity, hardiness and growth habits of a tree. After enthusiastic response from customers, we continue to offer an assortment of dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstocks in addition to the standard.

Looking for rootstock to graft your own trees? See: Rootstock for grafting.

• Standard rootstock: Most of the apples we offer are on standard full-sized Antonovka rootstock (and occasionally another full-sized rootstock). Standard trees have deep, substantial—and therefore hardier—root systems. By selecting the varieties appropriate to your district, grafted on standard rootstock, you may well be planting a tree that will be picked by your grandchildren’s grandchildren. Standard trees will grow to be large, but you can manage the size with pruning. The largest trees in our orchards are now about 30 years old, yet the tallest are well under 20' due to careful pruning. Although standard-sized apple trees may be planted as close as 10–15' apart, they were typically planted 30' apart in 19th-c. orchards. We generally plant standard trees 20–25' apart with good results. (Trees on standard stock are shipped at 3-6'.)
• Semi-dwarf and dwarf rootstocks: We offer an assortment of semi-dwarf and dwarf apple trees on Bud 118, M111 and Bud 9 rootstocks. Each has great advantages for some growers, but these size-controlling rootstocks also have their limitations. Please read on and decide if they are what you want. If you are uncertain, stick with the good old standards, which are extremely rugged, hardier, more tolerant of drought and poor soils, very long-lived, and more capable of thriving under a regime of benign neglect.
• Bud 118 semi-dwarfing rootstock produces a tree about 85–90% of standard size or even larger. Sometimes Bud 118 trees are called semi-standards or even standards. Considered to be more precocious (fruiting at a young age) than standards, and probably more productive. Very hardy, though not as hardy as Antonovka. Plant about 20–25' apart.
• M111 semi-dwarfing rootstock produces a tree about 65–80% of standard size. Sometimes M111 trees are called semi-standards. M111 may not be more precocious than standard-sized trees. However they will likely be more productive. M111 has a relatively shallow spreading root system, does well in light soils, and is relatively drought tolerant. Prone to suckering; not as long-lived or hardy as Antonovka. You can plant them closer together than standards, about 15–20' apart.
• G890 semi-dwarfing rootstock produces a tree about 55–65% of standard size. Adaptable to different climates and soil types, deeply rooted and hardy. Highly resistant to fireblight—the varieties we offer on G890 are ones we’ve found to be susceptible to fireblight in some locations. Plant trees 10–15' apart.
• Bud 9 dwarfing rootstock produces a small dwarf tree, 25–55% of standard size. This makes it easy to spray, prune and pick. It requires less space in your yard and will fruit at an early age. Trees should be staked or trellised for support. These trees are hardy, though not as hardy as Antonovka, and they won’t live as long. You can plant trees 5–10' apart.