How long does it take from fruit trees to go from seed to bearing fruit?

[Nynke]

from seedling to m9?

Hi Nynke,
Check out the breeding methods used by International Fruit Obtention (IFO) in France. Here is a quote from a report summarising their approach to apple breeding:-
"....three to five thousand seedlings are started in the greenhouses every winter and then subjected to intensive care with regard to light, nutients and water. Seedlings reach 2 meters height, or about 70 leaf internodes, by early September. When they pass 70 internodes of growth extension they leave juvenility behind and additional growth is capable of flower bud initiation. mature buds are then inserted into the base of M9 rootstocks. By late winter these trees are cut back and grown during year two into field ready finished trees that will be fruiting in years 3, 4 and 5 in a standard commercial M9 format."

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I'm confused, at which moment do you take scions en graft them on m9?
And what do you do with the seedlings?

What are your experiences with the first fruits of a new grafted tree? Sometimes they seem to be different from the fruit from a adult tree

[boundtothesoil]

I'm confused, at which moment do you take scions en graft them on m9?
And what do you do with the seedlings?

What are your experiences with the first fruits of a new grafted tree? Sometimes they seem to be different from the fruit from a adult tree

Hi Nynke,
I can't really help you with the question. The quote I included in my previous post describes the procedure used by a commercial apple breeder in France. As far as I understand, he/she takes a bud from each seedling and inserts this into his chosen rootstock (M9) scion, once the seedling has produced 70 internodes of extension growth up the main stem. Whilst I have never used this method, I believe that budding is usually performed in summer, where as conventional scion grafting is performed in late winter. So I guess that this breeder waits until the summer after his seedlings have reached 70 internodes before doing the bud grafts. But maybe he has some special method for doing it earlier. If, on the other hand, he was grafting 10-20 cm scions onto the rootstocks, I guess he might do this sooner, i.e. in late winter.

I also guess that once the breeder has grafted the seedling onto the rootstock, and sees that the graft has taken, the original seedling is disposed of.

I've noticed that the first fruits from young (2,3,4 year old) trees I've bought from nurseries, all of which must have been produced by bud or scion grafting, can occasionally be larger and taste a little different from the fruit from older trees of the same variety. I'm not sure if this is a significant effect though. Others on this forum may know more about this.

I would be more confident (subject to FB's opinion) in stating that the taste of a variety is likely to be affected by the rootstock on which it is grown.

[orangepippin]

The description in boundtothesoil's reference article seems to imply summer bud-grafting is being used. This also has the advantage that you can propagate more trees from the original seedling tree than you could with winter grafting. It *might* be possible to do this in the September when the seedling has reached the 70 internodes - it would be a bit late, but with the right facilities it should be possible.

Fruit size on M9 rootstock is very often somewhat larger than on other rootstocks.

[BUFFS]

i am now into the second full summer of growing on a self sown victoria plum seedling,its growing as a 3ft stem,then about 6 branches forming a standard shape,the leaves are a bit smaller than the plant it came off,and the colour is a deeper,richer green,so even if it doesnt fruit well,or at all,it will be a very attractive plant,it is in a large pot at the moment and will be planted out when we see how it develops,and it doesnt get fed,i put it in a good soil from the veg area and it is still thriving,no sign of pests or deseases on it even though the plants nearby have aphids(our little bird population are seeing them off)so it just decorates the rear patio at the moment,if the fruiting comes to anything i will be on here to tell how they taste..