Recommended for small gardens as a dwarf bush or trained against a wall. Because of its lack of vigour, it should only be used where the soil is fertile and never where there is any competition from grass or weeds. 

The M9 apple rootstock does not produce strong roots and whatever shape is grown, it must be strongly supported by a stake - if not it will almost certainly be blown over by winds.

The big advantage of the M9 rootstock is that it will produce a crop of apples much sooner than more vigorous rootstocks. However, the crop will be much smaller.

Does GardenAction recommend this rootstock? Not really - the tree needs careful attention throughout it's life and will only only produce a moderate crop of apples. If space is at a premium, we recommend the M26 rootstock - with careful pruning twice a year it's size can be restricted to near M9 rootstock size without most of the 'care' requirements.

Name: chris
E-mail: Private
Date posted: September 28, 2010 - 05:29 am
Message: M9 rootstock.
i live in cornwall and the wind can be a bit of a problem. I therefore chose M9 rootstock for all my fruit trees and yes they are staked and yes i do keep the ground clear and mulched, around about a metre in diameter, but i have not had problems with this stock and it does exactly what i wanted it to do. So i am not quite so negative about it a your notes. I would still consider it as an option