Fruit Tree Propagation - Own-Root Fruit Trees

Own-Root Fruit Trees

Many species of fruit (e.g. fig, filbert, olive, pomegranate) are commonly grown on their own roots, as there may be no great advantages to using a special rootstock, or suitable rootstocks may not be readily available. However even for fruit trees which usually are grown grafted on a rootstock, there can be advantages in growing them on their own roots instead, particularly in the traditional coppicing systems advocated in both sustainable agriculture and permaculture. Disadvantages of using own root trees can include excessive size and excessive production of wood (thus very long times until the start of fruit production), although training branches horizontally and limiting pruning to summer only may help encourage fruit production at an earlier age. There is a lack of research on the use of the own root method in large scale systems.