I’m hoping to try growing almonds at my family’s new place, even though it may not be easy. It’s located in a hot, dry, flat valley in Zone 5, and the soil in the area is a somewhat heavy clay with a pH of 8.2-8.3. Though it’s not the most ideal climate for fruit/nut trees, peaches and apricots have been grown in our neighborhood successfully.
I have read about the “Javid’s Iranian” Almond that England’s Orchard and Nursery sells, and it sounds like a good option to try with it being cold hardy, later blooming, and good-quality. However, I’m wondering if it would be best to try grafting scoinwood onto a rootstock myself, instead of getting it on the Nemaguard that they sell it on? I’ve been reading up a bit on different rootstocks and I’m not quite sure what would be the best option. Though Lovell peach is fairly common for fruit trees in general in our region, I can’t help but wonder if it would be even more advantageous to try a different rootstock?
Viking sounds like a good rootstock for these conditions, but I can’t find any information on its cold-hardiness and, unfortunately, it’s next-to-impossible to find for sale as a backyard grower.
Are there any other options that would work well for this type of situation? Any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated!
I have an oracle and nikitas pride almond that are both on Lovell in alkaline clay soil (ph7.8-8.0) They have only been in the ground for a little while so it is hard to give you a solid evaluation but they seem to be doing just fine. I also have plums, pluots and peaches on Lovell and they all do really well. If you want my two cents I would say if Lovell is a popular rootstock in your area then stick with what works. My Mom had a peach tree in this area on the wrong root stock and it always suffered form chlorosis and poor growth.
Unfortunately, not much to report yet. It’s a slow waiting game for me, due to budget and other constraints. A year and a half ago I obtained some Krymsk 86 rootstocks from a local acquaintance, but because the property wasn’t ready for them, I had to pot them up. Those will go in the ground this spring.
Though it’s a relatively new rootstock, it sounds like it will do well in my set of conditions and should have almond compatibility (how much so, exactly, remains to be seen; sounds like more research needs to be done).
Also, I have heard it mentioned that Prunus tenella is graft-compatible with almond, though further information about this is extremely scarce. I plan to experiment with this as a side project; I might take a similar approach to growing pear on cotoneaster: