- 01 Name the defect before you buy a famous cultivar A popular name is not a plan. Write the failure you must fix — disease, size, shelf life, salt, or buyer grade …
- 02 Do not plant one clone as the whole orchard A single clone can look perfect until one disease or one weather year. Diversity is insurance, not decoration.
- 03 Fruit quality and root survival are two jobs The canopy can carry flavour while the rootstock carries salt, drought, or soil disease. Do not ask one genotype to do both.
- 04 Clone the winner and retest — the best tree may be the best soil One outstanding seedling often sits on the best patch. Graft it, plant copies fairly, then decide if the genotype is real.
- 05 Rank trees over years, not one heavy crop Juvenility and alternate bearing fool a one-season ranking. A heavy year can hide a tree that will skip the next.
- 06 A trial is only as honest as the labels on the plants Mislabeled clones, mixed bags, and unnamed rootstocks invalidate years of watching. Identity is part of the planting, not paperwork.