Interstem does affect the vigor of scion which is really what you are talking about. It is a popular combination to insert a 9 interstem between scion and 111 rootstock. This reduces the vigor of the scion without as much reduction of the vigor of the rootstock (you can't reduce the vigor of the top of the tree without some reduction of vigor of the roots).

If the scion has more vigor than the interstem then the interstem will presumably reduce its vigor. How much would require research but the longer the interstem and the more dwarfing the greater the affect so a tree grafted high above the original scion should be highly affected by the relative vigor of the scion if my thinking is correct.

I have lots of trees grafted off of branches of different varieties and will study this issue more during the next growing season and even as I prune this winter.

On my nursery trees I usually try to graft less vigorous varieties as I work my way up the trunk doing my grafting in the middle of the tree so different varieties (usually only two) are added as extensions of the trunk. I haven't always done this, however, so I will look closely at trees with more vigorous varieties attached to less vigorous to determine if the vigor of higher scion is reduced by this relationship.

So the rootstock (in the case Lovell) will still have some effect on the newly budded Satsuma (which has been grafted (chip budded) to Puget Gold scion), but the Puget Gold, depending on how vigorous (which for what I can tell, is very vigorous) will also factor in on the growth of the new bud (that sentence is way too long!)...

Thanks for the help with trying to understand this. I think after a few years, I'll get a better idea on growth of various stonefruit and how they act on different trees of mine. Last summer I was just going nuts with budding peaches, plums, pluots, apricots on one another. My Puget Gold probably has 10 various varieties on it, if not more.

Since most fruit varieties are not dwarfing, interstems usually have very little effect on overall vigor. Some varieties of apple are more vigorous than others but the difference is nothing compared to M9 vs MM111.

When you mix species as you have done, peach to cot to plum, there is some chance that the cross-species aspect of the interstem will affect vigor in some way. I have never noticed it myself, but I don't have many inter-variety interstems.

Scott

Ok..i get it a little more.

I budded on a lot of different trees (plums, peaches, apricots), with some being seedlings, while others were grafted varieties. Should be interesting to watch what happens.

6.5 inches of snow here... My trees are in a winter wonderland.

With apples, plenty of varieties are dwarfish, including the likes of Arkansas Black, Goldrush, Smokehouse and some with high vegetative vigor, like Fuji or Northern Spy. Northern Spy is probably about as vigorous on M26 as Goldrush on 111.

There is not much difference between most of the J. plums and peaches I've grown, but there are large differences between cherry varieties and some E. plum varieties. Castleton grows with the energy of a fairly vigorous apple on M26 when it is on Myro. Valor, more like 7 or 111.

M9 is exceptionally dwarfing as a rootstock but its affect is much less as an interstem- however, the longer the interstem the more the affect. I wouldn't be too quick to write of the possible vigor affects on scion to the variety its attached to given the length of the connection.