So glad that this thread got bumped! It is very cool that the Adara plum can make so many types of prunus compatible with each other!
This would be a great addition for anyone wanting to graft these types of fruits 
So am I. I’d love to have access to some of this material as this seems to be pretty much the only rootstock I can use on almost half my property.
So…who’s willing to spread some love? 
Would a peach grafted onto Adara plum tend to be more successful compared to one grafted onto another peach rootstock? I am thinking, given that its much easier to graft plums compared to peaches, does it make sense to double-graft peaches via Adara interstem. I am guessing this shouldn’t work because the problem with grafting peaches is that the rootstock doesn’t have enough push to take on grafts unless they are on top of the tree. This cannot be circumvented using an interstem. I am just curious if anyone tried this.
My mother, you are all impressed with the Adara rootstock.
I do not see it available in the United States nurseries , so I suppose as been obtained through some exchange with people in Spain.
When you try the Monrepos rootstock in the United States , you will totally forget about Adara.
Monrepos is infinitely better.
Regards
Jose
I’m impressed with the potentials. Like I mentioned, a large portion of my property will be very wet for most of the winter, and using a rootstock that can accept and even potentially thrive in such conditions, is essential for success. Plums, pluots, and cherries are the fruit I prioritize which is why I’d like something I can use for them all.
Hi @Jose-Albacete,
Adara has been in very limited use here for perhaps 15 years. To my knowledge, it has only been commercially used in the US for converting existing plum orchards to sweet cherries.
Plums sprout up on my property like weeds so it has been useful to use as an interstem for converting the volunteers into sweet cherries.
My climate is somewhat similar to yours but not quite as extreme in terms of high and low temperatures because I am located very close to the San Pablo Bay. I suspect that Monrepos would perform quite well here in California.
Given the chance, I’d love to experiment with Monrepos. Do you have any idea how I can access this plant material?
One final question for you, a couple of people have recently asked me if Adara can be successfully used as an interstem for converting an existing cherry tree to a different stone fruit species. Do you happen to know the answer to this question?
Hi Dan.
If plums grow wild in your orchard, it is essential to use them as rootstock.
They have the disadvantage that they are very vigorous and develop large trees, but they are good rootstocks.
Both Adara and Monrepos are ideal to be compatible with cherry , and to use them directly as rootstock, I prefer Monrepos.
You are fully aware of the restrictions regarding the shipment of plant material from Europe to the United States and vice versa, and it would have to be done by sending cuttings in a package trying to avoid North American Customs, but it is not a good practice.
There is a compatibility study of Adara plum with peach tree, but it is a study of 20 years ago, and it was not investigated with modern varieties of peach.
The results are not very bad, so you could try to try your varieties.
I’m going to send you the document, it is a scanned PDF, so its translation into English is quite complicated, but it is quite understandable
TabuencaMC_ITEA_1991.pdf (1.1 MB)
Regards
Jose
if anyone brings cuttings in from Europe please get them screened for plum pox virus (ppv). the us has been very lucky to keep it contained so far and it would be devastating if it became established
Hi danchappell.
A few messages above you commented this:
If I recall correctly Joe used an existing street tree that came with the house that he bought. It is an ornamental purple leaf plum commonly used for landscaping in California urban areas. Although these trees are usually prunus cerasifera they are also frequently referred to as cherry plum due to the fact that the size and color of the drupe often resembles the appearance of a sweet cherry.
If you have not identified the variety of plum tree, I am absolutely sure that it is Prunus Pisardi.
Here in Spain it is also widely used as an ornamental tree and is an excellent rootstock.
Prunus Pisardi
hi z0r
Yes effectively , these types of problems are what must be avoided at all costs.
In no way can the plant diseases that we have in Europe be allowed to reach the United States, for example Sharca Virus (PPV virus), or the black knot of the cherry tree that you have in the United States and we in Europe have no incidence , or the bacterium Xylella Fastidiosa, of American origin and which has been affecting Europe since 2013.
Regards
Jose
I have no interest in importing plant material. Monrepos may already be in the US for research and trials. I just don’t know where to look and ask.
If I recall correctly, Zaiger’s “Zee Stem” will be off patent in a couple months so I may start working with that one also.
If I understand correctly, Pisardi is the Spanish name for Prunus cerasifera (a.k.a. Myrobalan a.k.a. cherry plum), i.e., it’s the same thing.
Pisardii is the name of the prunus cerasifera cultivar shown in the picture that Jose posted.
Yes, indeed, Prunus cerasifera var. pissardii - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre — Pisardi is a particular purple-leafed cultivar of P. cerasifera. However, in Spain it also became a common (albeit not rigorously correct) generic name for P. cerasifera (similarly to other generic names, like xerox or popsicle, that extended from a particular brand or type to an entire class).
Let’s see guys.
Prunus cerasifera is the same as the mirabolan plum, and refers to a botanical species.
Within this species, there are countless subspecies.
Some examples
- Mirabolan 29-C (green leaf)
- Prunus Pisardi (green leaf in its juvenile state, which turns red during its growth)
- Prunus Atropurpurea (very similar to Prunus Pisardi, with the difference that it has the red leaf since its most juvenile state)
And to finish a couple of very clear examples. - Plum Adara which is a subspecies of prunus cerasifera
ficha adara ingles.pdf (603.3 KB)
- Morepos which is also a subspecies of Prunus cerasifera
FICHA MONREPOS INGLES.pdf (130.5 KB)
Regards
Jose
Hi,
According to this note it’s reversible and works both ways, I will know by summer as I plan to start converting my cherries to plum using Adara and several other cherry plums that I think may work also.
-
C-8 Prunus cerasifera cv ‘Adara’ Compatibility With Cherry Varieties:
Adara or Puente, a myrobalan selection, was developed in UC Davis and researchers in Spain found out about its excellent graft compatibility with almost all sweet cherry cultivars while being graft compatible with Asian and European plums as well. It has been used as interstems to convert plum orchards into cherries or cherries into plums. All of the compatibility and incompatibility tests can be found in this scientific paper. 18
Dennis
I believe that you copied that paragraph about Adara being developed at UC Davis from the reference thread on this site about rootstocks.
It is incorrect.
Adara was developed in Spain, not UC Davis, and I have not found any papers that studied reverse compatibility. In the interest of accuracy, it would probably be best to delete this paragraph on both the reference thread and here unless there is some evidence to support it so that we don’t propagate misinformation.
Perhaps an administrator could correct the reference thread by updating that paragraph.
I can’t say for sure yet but I grafted Adara to a wild cherry seedling last year and it looks good so far. No swelling on the graft union and about a meter of growth. I plan to add some european plums this year.
Postmortem on a Utah Giant Cherry/Adara.
In Jan '19 I received Utah Giant cherry scions in a trade from @Drew51.
An unknown plum seedling was found near an oak tree behind the house and I performed a simultaneous graft of Adara + the cherry to this old plum seedling. There were significant size mismatches for each piece of plant material so a side graft was used at the stump junction and a Z-graft for the Adara to cherry union.
The tree grew vigorously from a scion to over 6 feet in two years.
A couple days ago someone (cough, cough) was felling the oak tree to make room for more fruit trees, when a heavy branch landed on the two year old cherry snapping it at the base. The graft union did not break.
I wouldn’t normally destroy my trees just to examine the grafts but this gives us a chance to cross section the trunk and see the union between plum and cherry.
The cherry is more vigorous and over grows the plum to some extent, this is expected. To my untrained eye it looks like a very good union although I see a discoloration about the width of a human hair on one side of the trunk. I don’t know what this is or if it is of any significance.
Not all cherries are compatible with Adara. The heirlooms Goodnestone and Burbank are showing galling at the graft union. Brooks and Black Republican have more overgrowth than Lapins and Utah Giant but those four are growing well after a couple years.
Here is a cross section of the graft union. The cherry begins where the bark suddenly gets thicker.
Sorry for your loss! Wow, nice graft! Good info on your observations. I had a graft grow over 10 feet this year, a first year graft. I appear to be getting better at it! 