interesting case study. How long have you had your prune plum on its own roots and how tall is it? I hope you keep everyone here posted on its progress. Or lack thereof… Have to say it is a most intriguing thesis, all by itself!
we have been cloning cultivars of a considerably longer-lived cousin of plums – jujube, now growing on their own roots and wondering if clones revert to their true clonal age/exhibit senescence in the absence of youthful hormones provided by seedling rootstock.
several yrs ago cloned the cultivar honey jar but it was runty the entire time then died around 3 years of age. Recently just cloned two juju cultivars that were supposedly grown from seed here in usa back in 1960’s and one that is way more ancient, having been imported as budwood from china in early 1900’s. Really curious as to how they will perform on their own roots
plums/peaches/nectarines have a discernible trajectory of vigor and productivity when grafted to seedling rootstock, which invariably decline within a human’s lifetime.
in the absence of diseases/pests, a grafted peach tree will ultimately decline in output after several years of peak production. While it may not necessarily die, it will senesce and decrease fruit production, until the tree won’t even fruit anymore…
the only way of getting the cultivar to fruit again is to get a scion and graft onto another seedling. Makes me wonder if your self-rooted prune plum cultivar has reverted to its ‘true age’, thus now performing like it would as if it was grafted to a really old rootstock–which, in your case study, is its own roots…
