Word of the Day
24 June 2026
rootstock
A healthy and vigorous-rooted plant that is used in grafting, most commonly as a sound base to support a scion that bears desirable fruit in orchard culture.
Why this one
The half nobody eats does the unglamorous work: it sets vigour, tree size and tolerance of the soil it sits in. Two orchards with the same apple variety can behave completely differently because the rootstock underneath is not the same.
In use
Same variety as the old block, but we put it on a dwarfing rootstock this time so the pickers can work off the ground.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.Sources
- Definition sourceWiktionary