I accidentally received 3 Krymsk fruit root stock form a nursery They told me to keep them. I have planted them in pots. Are they good for anything other than rootstock? Will they look pretty? Will they bear fruit? I have 3 others with our favorite plum grafted onto them, but want to know if it is worth planting these others.
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You didn’t specify what type of tree they are. There are lots of species with some variety called ‘krymsk’ - meaning Crimean. I doubt they’re rootstocks. What nursery did they come from? I’d guess offhand they might be quinces. If so, someone on the forum was saying how good they are fresh, which is really unusual for quince. Usually they’re for processing. A very under rated fruit in any case.
Welcome to the forum
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I guess there is a dwarf Prunus rootstock by that name too. Didn’t know. You could plant them and graft them yourself in years to come, or give them to someone for the same purpose
Would help to know if you have Krymsk 1, 5, 6, or 7
Krymsk 1 is a plum rootstock
5 , 6, and 7 are cherry rootstocks
Krymsk 5 has never set a fruit for me, I dont know if it can,
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What they are will help- as said rootstocks with the Krymsk designation vary by number and quince names vary as well. I assume that you are not a grafter, those of us who are would use these. I don’t know where you are, but you could always trade them for something you’d use.
Apricot on Krymsk.
My Krymsk is from Raintree nursery in Washington state. They only use it for grafting for dwarf trees. For me, they grafted my plum tree onto this root stock. They mistakenly sent me 3 more Krymsk rootstocks (probably also dwarf for plum/prune) and told me to keep them. They don’t know any other use than what they use it for. I am in Oregon, 1 hour south of Portland. Anyone want them? They are already 1 foot tall with leaves. I thought about just planting them for green trees, but I do not need them.
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I looked on the website where I got the Krymsk rootstock. It is Krymsk 1 Plum rootstock and it says "Prunus tomentosa x Prunus cerasifera
Also known as VVA 1. Plums and apricots grown on this Russian dwarfing rootstock have proven precocious. Spotty compatibility with peaches/nectarines. An excellent choice for home orchardists, the rootstock produces a tree about half the size of standard and it has shown excellent results when grown in heavy soils, acid or alkaline. Very little suckering observed."
I think it’s too big to ship anywhere. It has gotten away from me–now about 2 feet tall. I guess we’ll just plant them & see if we get some edible fruit. We are not gardeners and will never graft. We paid to have a nursery graft for us.
@BarbaraH the US patent for krymsk 1 seems to be PP 15,995. I looked this up on Justia (you can just search PP 15,995 patent) and confirmed that it is a Prunus tomentosa x Prunus cerasifera hybrid. Based on the patent, the krymsk 1 plant more closely resembles the Prunus tomentosa (which was the female parent) but has longer leaves and larger dark fruit with low fruit bearing. From what I have found, Prunus tomentosa is also known as nanking cherry and produces small fruits that resemble tart cherries. Prunus cerasifera is sometimes called cherry plum and produces small plums. Given the above, I suspect that krymsk 1 would produce small fruits (likely larger than the nanking cherry but it is unclear if it would be larger than cherry plums) and most likely will not produce a very large crop given that the patent indicated low bearing. The patent also indicates that the fruit is highly acidic and not recommended for consumption. As the patent indicated that it does produce some fruit, it should be able to flower but the flowering will likely not be on the same level as an ornamental variety and it might take a few years before it flowers. I did not see in the patent if it is self-fertile so it might need a Prunus cerasifera or Prunus tomentosa for pollination to produce fruit.
If you do allow the plants to grow, please provide updates on how it turns out.
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Over the years I have had 3 nectarines and 2 pluots grafted onto K-1.
They’ve all died within a few years. Don’t waste your time.
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I must admit I’m of a similar opinion as you @rayrose . I have purchased and grafted likely 40 plum trees over the last 4 years. Of these trees, the only rootstock I’m totally unimpressed with is krymsk 1. The growth rate on this rootstock is sluggish to almost non-existent compared to the other rootstocks I’ve used. The only rootstock that I’ve found as slow growing is prunus nigra, (but it gets more vigorous as it gets a little older).
For example I purchased an elephant heart plum on K1 several years ago. I swear it has barely grown 6" in all that time. I’ve taken grafting wood from this tree and grafted the same Elephant Heart onto apricot, nectarine, pluot, and both J and E plums. All these grafts took and were super vigorous on these other varieties, (while the mother tree they came from has totally languished on K1). In contrast, I grafted the same EH onto a tiny Euro seedling root sucker last spring and it put on 4’ of growth by the end of summer.
I’ve had several plum/pluot trees I’ve purchased on K1 outright die on me now. Other J plum trees are growing so weakly on K1 that I wouldn’t be surprised if they died as well. I live in a great climate for growing fruit and water is abundant. I plant on mounds and my trees generally do well. I rarely have new plum trees die on me, so losing 2 in the last year on K1 is a rather glaring disparity with my other plum rootstocks.
I would have stopped ordering trees on K1 rootstock entirely, but with limited sources for hard to find varieties in Canada sometimes there’s simply no other option. Fortunately, I always do backup grafts whenever I make a new purchase, so at least I haven’t lost the varieties yet when a variety grafted on K1 died.
All in all, K1 is a hard pass for me, (of course YMMV).
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BarbaraH, I might take them if you were in Portland or closer to me, although I probably don’t need them.
I grafted Reine Claude de Bavay to Krymsk1 in 2019. The tree is healthy and 7 or 8 feet tall despite probably not getting enough nitrogen and water the first couple of years after I transplanted it. Its probably about 3 years on from where yours would be if you planted them in the ground and grafted them.
If you get them established you could probably convince somebody to graft them for you. I’d do it if you were closer or there was a time that worked out to be in the area. I’m just East of Vancouver, WA.
Here’s the tree I talked about. Its next to a Hollywood on its own roots that was probably transplanted around the same time, maybe 2020 or 2021. I probably can look it up.
It’s behind the weeds. I haven’t gotten to the semi-annual pulling of the cage and dealing with them. Probably next year or 2026 I’ll get rid of the cage and let the deer browse the bottom 5 feet like they do on the nearby pear tree and this red Hollywood next to it.
The cattle panel is a little over 4 feet tall.
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Krymsk-1 is a dwarfing rootstock. It always makes me laugh when people whine about the slow growth rate of dwarfing rootstocks. That is literally the point. Peope seem to believe that a dwarf tree should grow 9 feet in one year and then stop growing altogether.
The only issue I have with Krymsk-1 is that the roots are very sensitive after it breaks dormancy. I think it is better to plant in ground and graft the following year.
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Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. I catch myself that way also. I usually use M26 for apples, but I’ve gotten a couple more vigorous trees from the big nurseries that were the only source for varieties I wanted. Then I marvel at how well the young trees grow and lament how long they take to flower forgetting that those things should be expected.
Regarding K1 it seems to be a good root stock (see FN comment below). I got J & E plums from Raintree for my FIL yard and they are growing fine. Reminds me of people in S.Cali with water restrictions complaining Citation is a terrible rootstock.
Your orchard is looking good.
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My other dwarfing rootstocks still put on growth and aren’t dying on me. I just measured a Burbank plum on K1 that I planted 2 1/2 years ago. I don’t think it’s grown an inch since I purchased it. It is now a whopping 18" tall. You want it, be my guest you can have it.
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