I wondered if they were telling me a “story” when I talked to them about it. The reason being is that why would a nursery put seedling on their invoices when the rootstock was a named rootstock?
Many nurseries do buy their seed from peach canneries, which is one of the reasons Halford is so popular.
Lovell isn’t used as a canning peach anymore, but there are nurseries which raise the peach for the seed.
I’m wondering why VanWell doesn’t raise something like Lovell if they are using their own seed anyway. Maybe they do as I do and use the peach drops for seed. I’ve not been able to tell any difference between my seedling rootstocks vs. named peach seedling rootstocks.
I ordered from Vanwell again in 2018. The trees did not grow as fast this year but I had issues with peach tree borers on some of them and we had almost 70 inches of rain this year - normal is low 40’s. Northing grew normal this year … I will say Vanwell by far has sent the trees with the largest calipers/whips - every tree 3/4 inch.
I am curious how growers get away advertising peach trees as semi-dwarf, I have never see a peach tree advertised as full size.
Because to the average home grower, this is useful information. They usually do not know the relative vigor of various species so the word explains that a peach on seedling rootstock can be maintained at similar size as an apple tree on semi-dwarf or semi-standard rootstock.