then I could probably just use santa rosa, or a pluot, or something else at that point as my interstem without buying K1.
I had a K1 before and was deeply unimpressed with the vigor, I am not a fan of “dwarf enough that I have to babysit it when there’s no rain for a week and I have to stake to make up for the lack of roots” trees, which is why I don’t have any apples on B9 either…I certainly don’t have a problem with dwarf rootstock, it just isn’t a great match for my general level of neglect… Not sure how K1 would behave as an interstem, but I also don’t want a 4-foot tree able to support like a dozen plums
In my opinion…just from what i’ve grown out from seed…pluot seedlings are the most aggressive/fasting growing of the bunch. I grafted pluot onto my cot a few years back an it almost took over the tree. The branch was massive…i ended up sawing it back to almost nothing.
I have 1 p americana and i’m not super impressed by it’s growth. I also think the wood is very weak. I’ve had branches break a few times. If it dies for some reason i won’t replace it. There are a ton of wild ones growing right near my house and they are more a shrub then a tree. I do think they help with my pollination.
If i can figure out how to multiply my k86 that would probably be a good one (best). It is a fast grower and should work with a variety of plums/cots/peaches.etc… I’ll be interested in seeing if it handled -30F.
It has been demonstrated that graft compatibility between different species may be restricted to specific cultivars of each of species such as in the case of Adara plum as a rootstock for cherries, peaches and apricots.
Perhaps @tonyOmahaz5 just won the genetic lottery by discovering a rare genetic freak that is inter-species graft compatible with the cultivars that he has grafted to it.
I have an 9 year old Opal (euro plum) on p americana, doing quite well, and have grafted several other euro varieties onto p am, though they are not as old. It seems likely that some cultivars of euro plum are more compatible with p am than others. P am. has an advantage of cold hardiness over most other options. For me, its a matter of digging out suckers in my plum patch, they a are free resource for me.
Here is my other 8 years old P. Americana rootstock with Prune 707. Byron gold, Ruby Queen, Bavay’s Green Gage, Emerald’s drop pluot grafted on it without any interstem. So after 8 yrs I would say it is compatible.
