OK, nobody laugh.
I finally got permission to go out to a lovely little centennial farm whose owner had passed and snip a bit of scion wood from what I had presumed was an elderly apple tree.
Turns out, it’s an elderly apricot tree.
Soooo… Where can I order a few little appropriate rootstocks at this late date, what do you recommend I look for in a rootstock, and who wants to slap me?
You can graft apricot on plum, peach
im in a different country/continent. So can’t help you with rootstocks.
here we usualy graft apricots on prunus domestica / insitia rootstocks.
So if you can’t score some rootstocks and have a EU plum nearby. You coult try and graft it to that.
You have a slight chance of introducing viruses and diseases though. Not unreasonable large in my gues. But it wanted to say it anyway just to be complete.
You could also look at this topic
for other possible rootstocks or compatible hosts.
Thank you, I will check through that link.
I don’t currently have any stone fruit at all, so I have nothing to graft onto.
And I’m finding that a lot of places are sold out, which is why I’m sort of suddenly desperately hunting for a source that might have something suitable.
For reference, if anybody DOES have specific recommendations, I’m zone 6b, with sandy loam that tends slightly acidic. This is blueberry country. The water table tends to be quite high, though, at around 4 feet.
from your description i would go plum rootstock. Peach probably does not live that long in that spot.
Also possible planting on a slight mound/hill might be worthwhile considering.
I know krymsk 86 might preforme better in wetter clay envirments. And is good for appricots.
We also use Sint julian A for apricot. Altough some apricots are quite picky with graft compatibility.
And i use mostly Wangenheim Prune seedlings. Or weiwa/wavvit (clonal version of wangenheim selection, tissue propegated)
Krymsk 1 and 2 (VVA-1 and VSV-1) are stronger dwarfing and newer rootstocks. But i heard some anecdotal disease issue’s from those.
from most dwarfing to largest (on the top of my head)
VVA-1, VSV-1, Wangenheim/wavvit/weiwa, St julian A/krymsk 86
I don’t know about availability of those for you though.
I’d personaly prefure the wangenheim/clones of wangenheim or krymsk 86 followed by st julian A for your location. But thats only from what i read. I have not mature tree’s on those rootstocks or experiance with zone 6 climate.
When your local “big box stores” get in their fruit trees…you can find something to graft to.
May not be the cheap route, but it will do in a ‘emergency’ if you can’t find rootstocks, or seedlings.
Maybe Burnt Ridge Nursery can help.
https://www.burntridgenursery.com/Rootstock/products/98/0/11/
I bought a few apricot (Manchurian) rootstocks from Bob Purvis a couple of years ago. I am not sure if he would have any extras. https://purvisnurseryandorchard.weebly.com/
I second Bob Purvis. I bench grafted on to Manchurian and they grew like crazy. One of mine grew to over 5’ in a single season.
I’m just amazed that an apricot gets that old in that part of the country!
Thanks for all the help, folks. Bob Purvis did indeed still have what I needed. AND he even sent me a bunch of very helpful info on grafting apricots.
Wish me luck!
