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I bought a number of apple trees from a good source earlier this year on M9 rooting stock.
They are all doing very well but a few of them have offshoots from below the grafting site from the root stock . I will remove them for the benefit of the grafted apple type. But I was wondering.
Could I remove the growth , grow it on and use it to graft more of the apples I like on to it.
Would it be a good way to get some M9 root stock.
I am very new with apple trees . The first few I planted about 2 years ago have a small amount of fruit on .
Thanks for any advice.

I'm not sure what you mean,if you remove the suckers,how will you grow them on? Spose you could wait till they're dormant then take them off,and then treat them as hard wood cuttings,but it sounds like me a bit of a faff.....easier to get some good'uns (any fruit tree supplier will sell you a couple for not a lot) then you will be sure that any budding/grafts you have a good chance of making a decent specimen.I wouldn't discourage anyone from doing some grafting/budding,it's pretty easy,and really rewarding,just use a reliable rootstock source.Good Luck with it.

Surely it would be worth taking one of the shoots with a bit of root, planting that out to establish itself, then in winter cutting it back, covering with earth, then the following year this should send up several shoots which you can divide and you will have several rootstocks suitable for grafting.

Cheers

Gra wrote:Surely it would be worth taking one of the shoots with a bit of root, planting that out to establish itself, then in winter cutting it back, covering with earth, then the following year this should send up several shoots which you can divide and you will have several rootstocks suitable for grafting.

Never seem to get much root with anything,personally,just suckers,but if if you do get something rooted,of course, give it a go.