User:Richard Avery
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Rootstock (horticulture) A rootstock in botany and horticulture is a root or the lower part of the plant attached to the roots.[1] [2] In plant cultivation a rootstock is a plant from which the top part has been removed and is then used to receive a graft. Rootstocks are widely used in commercial plant growing for several different reasons. Most often rootstocks are used in the production of fruit trees. There are various rootstocks which have the ability to keep the fruit tree at a smaller size than it might otherwise be. This is helpful because the tree will flower and fruit normally but will remain a smaller size suitable to harvest the fruit or grow more trees on a given piece of land. Some rootstocks make the upper part of the tree or bush grow more vigourously, this is helpful if a newly bred plant has a slow growth pattern and takes too many years to reach fruiting maturity.[3] In the grape-growing regions of the world grape vines are grafted onto rootstocks that are resistant to a damaging insect called phylloxera.[4] In the past this tiny fly was responsible for the deaths of millions of grapevines.[5] As with fruit trees, grapes can also be grafted to rootstocks that make the vine grow less vigourously without affecting the amount of fruit, or a slow-growing vine can be grafted onto a rootstock that will help it to grow bigger.[6]
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