Anyone know where to get small qty of peach rootstock?

General Fruit Growing
#1

My father bought 40 acres about 10 years ago. There was an old trailer on the lot and a hog lot behind it. On the edge of the woods is an old peach tree that set fruit, none of the other peach trees my father planted set fruit this year. I am looking to graft from that tree onto rootstock (never grafted before). Anyone know where I can get small qty of peach rootstock (now)?

#2

I don’t know where you can get any rootstock but you could hold off and do some bud grafting later on in the year.

#3

You can get

Marianna at Cummins
or
Marianna and St Julian at Raintree

#4

I am used to Lovell or Bailey? How do these compare? I am in the Virginia Piedmont area, heavy clay soil, sometimes very compacted.

#6

I think that Marianna/St Julian would be somewhat dwarfing compared to Lovell, but probably bigger than Citation (very dwarfing from what I’ve seen). I’m not sure about compatibility- from what I’ve read, St Julian would be the better option. I ordered 5 from Raintree this year for bench-grafting.

#7

I wish K1 wasn’t so hard to find. I can’t find a single US source for it on line.

#8

I tried to find Guardian rootstock for peach, since that is what is recommended here. Completely impossible. Not sure why all you can ever buy are the same old rootstocks, and nothing new is ever available to the consumer.

#9

Hi everyone - thanks for all the replies. I checked the links and it looks like some are out of peach rootstock, some carry rootstock that I am unsure of (Raintree). Ripley shows that have Lovell in stock but in small quantities I am looking at $5 a rootstock before shipping. I will call them tomorrow but I may have to wait. I really want to try and graft from my father’s tree as it seems to be cold Hardy (blooms). But I want to do it on something I am familiar with so I can benchmark it against my other trees.

#10

Where is Guardian recommend?

#11

I’m in Georgia. Due to Peach Tree Short Life being so prevalent here, it is highly recommended (at least by UGA) as conferring the most protection.

You can find it at certain select nurseries, but have to buy the whole tree. I haven’t found anywhere that sells just the rootstock.

#13

You should post this in the “Resources Forum”.

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#14

Raintree had K1 earlier this year. I ordered 7 and got them last week. Check their site around October.

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#16

I’ve gotten it from Raintree in the past. I’m not sure how good a rootstock it is for peaches. My peach graft hasn’t grown much more than 1.5-2’ in 2 years, while the rootstock keeps sending up growth from under the graft. I also grafted plums on some and they grew much better, but the stock is still sending up of growth.

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#17

I was just reading about possible issues using K1 for peaches on the NAFEX forum archives today. The issue was regarding graft site weaknesses. That is disappointing as I would need to keep peaches under cover about 75% of the time. I guess that leaves El Dorado, a natural dwarf. I wonder if there is any testing of new dwarfing peach rootstock. Fingers crossed…

#18

Yeah, I got 3 Krymsk 1 from Raintree, and some scions from Burnt Ridge to graft to them. But I don’t know where I’m going to plant them. To my wife’s consternation, they are in a nursery bed in the vegetable garden.

#19

Here in missouri peaches and nectarines are severely dwarfed on citation rootstock. Trees I have 3 years in ground are only 4ft tall and mabye 5ft wide. Once they fruit they put on very little growth, at least that has been my experience so far

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#20

::whistles, looks innocent::

I wouldn’t know anything about parking my benchgrafts in the raised bed where the peppers were going to go, not at all…

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#21

Thanks for the info. I’ll look into Citation as an option. Hope you get a nice crop this year.

#22

Unfortunately we had a very early spring warm up this year, everything bloomed mabye close to a month early and a freeze event when plums/pluots, apricots, and peach/nectarines were blooming. Only a light crop of peaches and nectarines remain. But there is always next year. I will be able to judge the growth of peach/nectarine on citation with little or no fruit load. What I can say is the fruit on citation is big and very good quality, I just don’t know if the trees will stay healthy on it here in missouri.

#23

Thanks everyone for the great discussion on Rootstock. Coming back to my original question - where can I find peach rootstock now - I determined from this discussion that I should stick with a peach seedling, something like Lovell, Halford, Bailey. I am going to stay away from the citation, ST Julien A, etc as it seems like the results are all over the place for different people. I contacted Ripley as they are the only one showing Lovell available but they are sold out. Do any of the companies make rootstock available in the Fall for a fall planting or am I stuck waiting until spring 2018?