Anyone know where to get Viking rootstock?

Viking is one of the only rootstocks that is compatible with almost all stone fruits but also with high disease resistance.

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Viking looks fantastic on paper for high vigour trees, but like so much that comes from Zaiger it’s nearly impossible to find a stockist.
I’ll be watching this thread to see if anyone else can find one!

I’ll be watching too in case anyone happens to find one. Someday someone is bound to.

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Richard gave you a link for the UCDavis Foundation Plant Services as a source of Viking rootstock. What did they say as far as supplying you with Viking rootstock?

They gave me no response when I asked them about buying some.

Well if you got no response it’s hard to say what their position is. It could be it’s low on their list of priorities or that you need to be a researcher to get actual materials or something else. I don’t think you’re going to find a willing commercial supplier unless you’re willing to buy in larger quantities (50, 100, etc.) And with Viking they might not sell them to you at all unless you are an operating nursery.

Your options basically are:

  1. Buy finished trees on the Viking rootstock you want if you can find the cultivar/rootstock combination you want.

  2. Produce the rootstock yourself using stooling techniques for the Viking rootstock (the patent is expired). You will still need to buy at least one tree to start stooling. Or you can also induce suckering of the rootstock of the tree and either reproduce the rootstock by taking cuttings or removing part of the sucker with root hairs. Also this is a fairly long, slow process.

  3. Switch to a different rootstock that is more readily available. Say Krymsk 86 for example. Depending on the alternative rootstock minimum order quantity may be 1 or 50 depending on the rootstock.

What do you want to use Viking for in particular? Do you have a particular issue that requires the use of Viking over other rootstocks? People are going to have a hard time guiding you to a suitable alternative if they have no knowledge of the situation and what you’re trying to accomplish.

I am trying to graft almonds, plums, peaches, maybe some varieties of apricots and nectarines, along with cherries using a plum/cherry inter-stems on to one tree maybe I’ll do it with 2-3 tree’s depending on how many rootstocks I end up with. I found Lovell will also work but it is way less disease resistant.

For a multi-graft multi-species tree I think you would want to look at Krymsk 86. It has some good qualities. It’s much more readily available than Viking although not as easy to get as Lovell. Here are some links.

Do you have any grafting experience? Multi-species, multi-graft trees are pretty cool. But it isn’t easy to graft one and it requires more management when it comes to pruning, training, etc. I think it’s a worthwhile project but it may be overwhelming dealing with the learning curve if you don’t have any grafting experience.

@thecityman talks about the challenges pretty honestly I think and the rest of the thread has good info in it as well. One thing I will add is a tree like this is harder to spray because of all the different bloom and ripening times. In the Eastern US you will have to spray to control brown rot and to control insects.

From what I’m seeing unless someone can get a large group together like hundreds of people or is a large scale grower they won’t be able to buy Viking or krymsk 86 rootstock.

No you don’t need hundreds of people. And no you don’t need to be a large scale grower to get Krymsk 86. It was available on Figbid ( the listing is in the link below) and you could buy like 5 at a time. It’s not available right now.

Willamette Nurseries offers it but they sell root cuttings in bundles of 50. They also sell potted liners. It’s not clear the number you need to buy for potted liners but it appears to be 25 or 36 is the minimum order.

What I would suggest is you look over the Terms and conditions, Sizing Specifications, and Order Details sections on their website carefully. If you’re still interested contact them directly and ask when stock will be available as well as any questions you have about the rootstock and the ordering process. There may be other vendors that sell Krymsk 86 in similar quantities but offhand I don’t know any.

I think Krymsk 86 has been available at the retail level before (not counting Figbid) but I not seeing it now. If you want just 3 you could look at retail rootstock vendors and see if some pops up on their websites but there is no guarantee you will find it.

Good Luck

Sorry I was confused couldn’t find anything like that. The minimums I was finding were all like atleast like in the hundreds. :sunglasses:

I got confused on willamette when I saw this chart started at 1000.

They give volume discounts if you buy large numbers. Since you are buying less than a 1000 you use the <1000 column to get your price per plant and then add the $0.30 royalty to the base price you pay per plant. Minimum order size is not on this page.

Minimum order size is on this page in the link below. Look at the bottom of the first paragraph. "Minimum order quantity is one bundle for bareroot plants and 1 flat for container plants. "

I hope this helps.

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I got three 4" x 9" potted peach trees last week from Four Winds Gowers @ $38 each. They were all grafted on Viking rootstock.

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I’ll have to look into them.

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These guys maybe, it’s listed under almond only but they sell rootstock

This is a wholesale nursery, their minimum order is 100 rootstocks.