In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out.
After some years, it may be difficult to detect the site of the graft although the product always contains the components of two genetically different plants.
Although grafting has been practiced for many hundreds of years, even in Roman times, most orchard rootstocks in current use were developed in the 20th century.
Grapevines for commercial planting are most often grafted onto rootstocks to avoid damage by phylloxera, though vines available for sale to back garden viticulturists may not be.
Serial grafting of several scions may also be used to produce a tree that bears several different fruit cultivars, with the same rootstock taking up and distributing water and minerals to the whole system.
Rootstocks are studied extensively and often are sold with a complete guide to their ideal soil and climate.
Growers determine the pH, mineral content, nematode population, salinity, water availability, pathogen load and sandiness of their particular soil, and select a rootstock which is matched to it.
It achieved a degree of notoriety in California when, after decades of recommendation as a preferred rootstock—despite repeated warnings from France and South Africa about its susceptibility (it had failed in Europe in the early 1900s)—it ultimately succumbed to phylloxera in the 1980s, requiring the replanting of most of Napa and Sonoma, with disastrous financial consequences.
[5] This root is highly susceptible to suckering and leaning over in its later years of life, which is very annoying and causes issues for the producer.
[8] Malling-Merton 106 rootstock is slightly smaller than MM 111, but is a very productive tree and has early fruiting abilities.