Peach on apricot roots?

I have read members opine that peach roots are the worst. That among available options, peach is the most problematic root system.

I sure don’t want to waste my time trying to reinvent the wheel, and with other rootstock options for growing peach trees, maybe there would be no point…but my idea would be to use St Julian A as an interstem and grow peaches on Apricot root, because of how long lived apricots are.

Has anyone tried this?

I can see that both peaches and apricot will grow on St Julian A, so I’m thinking of giving this crazy idea a shot.

(Link below to page showing trees for sale on St Julian A)

http://www.sanhedrinnursery.com/rootstock/58-st-julian

Found this dicussion: http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/gardening/peach-apricot-rootstock-t792.html, opinions vary. :wink:

And on this forum: Apricot as peach rootstock - #2 by warmwxrules

I read the heck out of a thread yesterday (sorry I have not read the above links) and basically peach on apricot = “many will not do well. some ok”
Asian / European plum grafting compatibility

If you were to bridge pluot first then peach on pluot, you should be fine.

Here are my notes and a chart from this thread:

(See Chart)

I’ve read this thread now twice and compiled notes:

EDIT: European to Asian plum = no

Asian to European is not always compatible. In fact in most cases is not. Don’t even mess with it. (crfg publication) The majority of members report incompatibility. EDIT: According to the chard many will work.

Japanese plum to Japanese plum or rootstocks: St Julien, Citation, Krymsk 1, Krymsk 86

Peach accepts European plums (chart says); pluots do well according to Lizzy; Asian plums do well according to Lizzy but member Lizzy however lost many E.plums on peach. Figure that one out.

Apricots accept pluots very well. EDIT: Japanese plums (Some see chart) / European (Most not compatible)

Raintree Nursery puts all their multi-plum grafts onto peach root.

Old Asian plum trees may have better acceptance to European plums because they are not as vigorous as younger trees. There within lies the possible compatibility when grafting European plums to Asian plums.

Dax

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I’ve got Stanley and Green Gage grafted to Methley. It’s survived the first year and has some flower buds that should pop this year. Long term could be a different story.

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Well, I have read some more, and found that St Julian is in the same group as Damson, Mirabelle, and Bullace, some say that St Julian fruit is the same as Green Gage.
That might change the chart above a bit, as peach and nectarine do grow on St Julian.
Another member even found almonds on St Julian at Orange Pippin Trees.

I do believe I’m going to try some, if I can get some apricot roots.
I will post an update someday, when I know something more then I do now.
Thanks for the feedback and tips!

Dave, I’ve read about all of your grafts on various trees on different threads. Have fruited anything from those or other trees? It sounds like you might have a bunch of Frankenplums or Frankenapples, and so on?

Most of my trees are multigrafted. I bought 3 multigraft trees the first year I planted my little orchard but since then I’ve planted several other trees most of which have been grafted onto to create Frankentrees. It’s been a lot of trial and error and I did a lot of things wrong from the start that have probably kept my trees from producing like they could have. I’ve had a few asian pears and some apples from my multigrafts but no plums or apricots as of yet. If the weather wasn’t so warm this year I’d likely have my first crop of stone fruit since many varieties that I’ve grafted have plenty of flower buds. My issue will be the early bloom period will almost certainly get froze out. Yesterday I noticed Flavor Delight, Flavor Supreme, Flavor King, Dapple Dandy, Robada, Orangered, and Goldcot all about to pop open this week.

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I have a Puget Gold on Krymsk 86…on the Puget Gold wood i have pluots, japanese plums, hybrid plums grafted to that. I have one pluot branch that tried to overtake the tree it grew so well so i chopped it back. I believe i put some peach on that pluot (using pluot as interstem) for this year…so we’ll so how that goes. In the past i budded Saturn onto Puget Gold and it grew and then died…so that didn’t seem to work. My prunus americana seedling currently has a bunch of various plums, peaches and plouts on it…i fruited Saturn on it last summer…

Fedco here in Maine recommends using American plum rootstock for grafting peaches. I have used them with decent success (well over 50% take despite grass, weeds, bugs, and errant string trimmers) T-budding in August. The graft unions end up pretty globby but that may be just my crummy technique; in any case I haven’t seen one break off.

The plum stock itself is pretty near indestructible unless it gets choked with grass in the first year; blast one with a bushhog and it sends up half a dozen stems the next spring.

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How do we find out which peaches varieties will do ok on apricot? I’ve got an apricot that I want to put peach scions on. If I do an interstem, which I’ve never done before, do I graft that, then wait until the following year to graft a peach scion onto it?

Just graft the peach to apricot. If you’re a good grafter you’ll know if that cultivar is successful or not. In the meantime, put it on plum or peach, also.

You do interstem work either way, Rob. I would do it all at one. The material of the interstem doesn’t need to be any certain length, it just has to be there. Good luck.

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I have peach on apricot root with a St Julian plum interstem. It grew fine last year. I transplanted it a while ago.

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An excerpt from a book on plant propagation:

Apricot seedlings are occasionally used as a rootstock for the peach. The graft union is not always successful, but numerous trees and commercial orchards of this combination have produced fairly well for many years. Seedlings of the ‘Blenheim’ apricot seem to make better rootstocks for peaches than those of ‘Tilton.’

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@joleneakamama

I had never seen that path (of phylogeny). Watch the purple line how all three those species’ are at the “ends” of a grouping, and, how short the path it is for them to meet.

Phylogenetic-relationships-of-Prunus-sl-based-on-a-concatenated-dataset-of-chloroplast

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@Barkslip have no idea what that means. :slight_smile:
I tried it because I heard that both peach and apricot were compatible with St Julian.

In the last light of day, here is my Baby Crawford on manchrian apricot root with about an 18 inch St Julian interstem.
It put on a couple feet if growth last year after grafting. The bottom graft was done the previous year. Its overall a bit over my 5’7".


Top graft union.

Botom graft union.

I’m hoping for a longer lived tree…and lots of peaches over its lifetime.

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Hi Rob,

I’ve grafted quite a few peaches to Manchurian Apricot, as that was my original hope for a cold-hardy rootstock. Most of them grew through the summer and then failed in the dormant season, even though I gave them cold protection. Some have made it through a couple seasons and don’t look like they are thriving at this point. Probably my happiest looking peach on Apricot is Clayton, but still only a couple years old. Bob Purvis mentioned Siberian C is growing well on Apricot for him, so I hope to try that as an inter stem this year. I’m intrigued by Jolene’s experiments with the St. Julian inter stem.

I’ve had much more success grafting peaches to American Plum, although not many nectarines seem to like that rootstock in my experience so far. On the other hand, I have one nectarine that seems to be thriving on the Apricot roots.

Duane

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There’s absolutely no swelling, Jolene. It’s beautiful. I’ve seen swelling now in one year with definitely a nectarine on American plum. I have I know an Apricot also showing excessive/massive incompatibility on American plum and both were grafted 1.5 years ago.

I would bet in Vegas on what I see, then again, you’re not 10-yeras in.

Thanks for those photos-

Dax
P.s. NICE ORCHARD Lady!

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Sounds like hoping is still safer then betting. I’ll keep ya’ll updated on how it does. I also have two peaches on Myro 29c with St Julian interstems (Baby Crawford and Kaweah) and two peaches straight onto Krymsk1. (Rio Oso Gem and June Pride)

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Here’s why:

Japanese plum to Japanese plum or rootstocks: St Julien, Citation, Krymsk 1, Krymsk 86, Prunus americana, & Apricot.

These are from my own notes. I don’t know where/how I figured this out.

If you’re not understanding, anyone, All is compatible in that bold sentence.

Dax

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before reading the discussion here, I just did Saturn peach chip budding on Manchurian Apricot, hoping to take advantage of its cold hardy and longevity.

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