When the manager of an orchard at Manson, Washington, told grafter Ken Coates that he was thinking of pulling out an Amber Jewel plum block to plant cherries, Coates told him he had a better plan. Coates, who has been a commercial grafter for almost 30 years, had experience in California of using an interstem to graft plums over to cherries instead of pulling the trees, thereby avoiding the costs and lost time involved in replanting. For the interstem, he uses the plum rootstock Adara, which is compatible with cherry. Adara (Prunus cerasifera) was developed in Spain and is sometimes […]