I am very late at trying to find a few rootstocks for pear and plum.
I ran across a few nice espalier trees in a nursery and wanted to try myself.
I am looking at a fire blight resistant pear rootstock, maybe OHxF 87, OHxF 87, or OHxF 333 for the pears. Compatible with Asian and European varieties. I want to get it growing this summer then chip bud my varieties in the fall to get a good start for next spring.
Also want to do something similar with plum, both European and Asian. Maybe Citation or Kmyrsk 1?
I will try grafting a different harvest time fruit and pair them with pollinator (if needed) to get an extended harvest.
Unfortunately as I look online, everyone seems to be out of stock or only accept orders of 100 minimum.
If anyone has a source please let me know. I’m looking at 3 each for the pears and plums so I can practice and in case a few don’t take.
I want to say some nurserys restock rootstock??? Maybe for fall planting right before winter you can grab some stuff too. I really want to get into grafting as well, have yet to try it out- hoping to this year.
What are you looking for with plum? This is my first year growing plum, i bought just one Krymsk-1 from this site- maplevalleyorchards, seems to be all sold out for now but they have a few st, julien left right now, reasonable pricing for sure. i think 12-20$ shipping on top,
Nice! Hope they work out well for you. Ordered 2 bench grafts and a 4’ pear tree from them last year and everything grew out fine. Ordered a few custom bench grafts this year @12$ per, they let you choose rootstock/scion combos and have a decent library of scion wood. Glad you asked because I dont remember the st juliens being in stock when i checked a few months ago, you reminded me- now I gotta try to grab a few of the last ones.
That’s why communication is important. Others pick up our loose screws!
Custom grafts… Hmmmm. I think I want to do it myself that’s why I will grow 3 or 4 for the one espalier I want. Best case I have a few gifts to grive away. Worst case it takes a few years to get all the varieties I want on the tree.
Thanks to those on this forum I found OHxF 87 from Cloud Mountain and St Julien A from Maple Valley.
The OHxF 87 rootstock arrived with good bud swell on all 5 I purchased. See first photo.
The St Julien A is a different story. I bought 3. There don’t appear to be any buds on the whips. The bud locations which are evident by the small indentation in the trunk, don’t show any dormant or pushing buds. I cut the tops of each off and the cambium layer is nice and green all the way around. I contacted the supplier and they just said to wait.
This is also something I see in two low chill cherries I received and planted just last week…the lack of viable buds on the wood. I even bud grafted a few leafed out locations to see if I couldn’t place growth on those small branches.
Is this something ya’ll have seen? To my limited knowledge if you rub off a bud you get no growth from the location, at least not in the same year.
The bud locations on these trees: Were they mechanically rubbed off? Were they dessicated and thus lost?
I do know that hidden in each leaf node on many fruit trees are several buds beyond the one that is expressed and visible, whether it’s undifferentiated cells or determined cells (vegetative or fruiting), but I don’t know the mechanism for this activation and if they are still present if the existing dormant bud is removed or dries up.
Anyone?
The budded photo is one of my OHxF 87 rootstocks. The next is a St Julien A with no buds. Not great focus on the photo I know.
