Apple Rootstock Studies in Kansas

Abstract

Apple rootstock studies have been conducted by the Department of Horticulture at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station since 1938. That year about 350 French Crab seedlings obtained from a Kansas nursery were planted about three feet apart in two rows six feet apart. The soil was a heavy loam underlaid with a gravelly clay subsoil. In 1939 another 250 seedlings were added to the plots. Many of the seedlings died during the first three seasons. Then on November 11, 1940, came the "Armistice Day freeze," when the temperature dropped from around 70° F. to near 0° F. within 24 hours. This being the first killing frost that fall, fruit plants were not hardened sufficiently. Only 62 trees survived, and these showed no evidence of damage when examined in the spring of 1941. The undamaged trees were numbered K _lto K ₆₂and moved to a new site.