I’m will be grafting Apricot soon, and I have a few peach seedlings I’m digging up and thinking of using those as rootstock, or a myrobalan rootstock getting from the grafting workshop in Lancaster, pa tomorrow.
Anyone tried Apricot on Peach rootstock? This article suggests it’s a great option. http://www.mcgrathnurseries.co.nz/fruit-trees/rootstocks/apricot-rootstocks/849-peach-seedling
I’ve attempted it once at a family’s backyard, but they cut the tree down.
I just read a thread on here last week that talked about graft compatibility. I think Apricot to peach should work fine. But I think if you try to put peach on apricot not all peach varieties are compatible.
Bass,
I have a red leaf peach rootstock from Starkbros that I grafted a Chinese sweet pit apricot onto it 6 years ago and it doing just fine.
Tony
Apricot on peach i think is almost always fine. Peach on apricot not so much. I tried a donut peach (maybe Saturn) on Puget Gold and it grew about 8 inches and just died. Hybrid plum (Superior), Japanese plum (Satsuma), plumcot, pluot all seem to grow fine for me on apricot. I’m pretty sure i have a few peach or nectarine chip buds on one of those being used as an interstem.
I have several apricots on peach. I have generally gotten excellent results from it, BUT peach wood is much more susceptible to peachtree borer so you are significantly raising the risk for that.
Does anyone have an idea how placing apricot on peach might affect its ultimate size?
The problem with peach roots with apricot is that I forget to check them for borers and borers don’t care what’s on top. Peach roots are also the least competitive species I grow for water, which probably isn’t an issue for most of you with a few trees and easy water access,but at sites I manage that rely on rain for irrigation peaches are the worst. They also hate wet feet. There is no root stock worse than peach from my perspective.
whenever compatibility is not an issue, knowing the productive lifespans is something i strongly consider, since longer lifespans indicate stress- , disease-, and pest-resistance/tolerance.
many mentioned below are fairly accurate. The entry for jujubes seem to be extremely conservative/pessimistic.
http://www.davewilson.com/question/how-long-do-fruit-trees-live
Myro should work. I’m gonna try grafting some cots onto Myro this spring. The Hesse Weinberger plumcot takes readily on Myro.
Citation works too, and makes dwarfed trees, but that stock cannot be purchased separately. You need to buy whole trees from Raintree, Sanhedrin, or Bay Laurel nurseries.
Matt, I have a couple of apricots on Myro 29C and they are canker magnets (so far only on limbs and not on the trunk, so trees survive after limb removal). Apricots on Citation did not show this susceptibility.
Are they all the same varieties? I’ve never heard of Myro being a problem with any specific disease, but it imparts more vigor than Citation, which, besides for fireblight, should be an advantage against disease. (I’m speaking about FB purely hypothetically, as stone fruit is not susceptible).
Citation might be nice for the most upward growing and vigorous apricot varieties. I’ve never gotten any on it- only E. plums. For plums it is great in rich, somewhat heavy soils that inspire excessive vigor.
Friday I was pruning a bunch of plums growing in a soil where corn was being commercially grown nearby- a very rich, deep, clay loam. The amount of annual growth on these myro-rooted mature trees is staggering and the owner would have been better served if all the plums were on Citation instead of Myro, especially the J. plums.
All apricot varieties are different, but still that would be quite a coincidence. In my experience, apricots have enough vigor on Citation, it’s peaches that are quasi-incompatible.
I don’t think it would be a coincidence that exceeds the unlikeliness of you discovering a disease susceptibility that has been overlooked by the industry and the literature that serves it (I’m not certain this is the case- haven’t done that search).
I have made the majority of my mistakes in horticulture and probably life in general by exaggerating the importance (statistical significance) of my own limited anecdotal observation. Humans are hard-wired to do this.
I went yesterday to the Grafting workshop in Lancaster, Pa that was hosted by the BYFG. I picked up Plum rootstock (not sure what type) and Peach Krymsk rootstock. I might graft apricot on both and try them out.
There was peach borer problem in the past at my current property, but I’m going to plant them away from where peaches once were.
Now I wish I got some dormant plum scions to graft on the extra plum rootstocks I got.
I have done the search and here is the result:
S. M. Southwick and K. G. Weis, “Selecting and Propagating Rootstocks to Produce Apricots,” HortTechnology, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 164-170 (1998). Table 1:
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Good job. Thanks. I’m not sure how that relates to creating susceptibility in apricots. Now I’m curious about practical ramifications.
Actually, I don’t get much choice on rootstocks from my suppliers with apricots. They are always on myro or peach seedling and myro has not been a problem with the scores of trees I’ve ordered from ACN. in the last couple of decades, but this is in S. NY. Peach root has been a PIA because of borers…
Having just spent about 15 minutes searching for something related to commercial apricot production and relative merit of Myro rootstock, I’m guessing your reference may not have much practical significance as far as root stock selection.
Can you find any more specific research as it pertains to commercial fruit production- in other words, whether this susceptibility has any practical significance in choosing a rootstock for cots? I apologize if it seems like I’m just trying to protect my ego. This may be the case, but I think my motivation is wanting to keep this forum a very reliable source for useful information.
The most recent reference in the info you supplied does not recommend against the use of myro, and seems to favor it.
http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/8/2/164.full.pdf
The borers will just as likely find them, I think. Just keep your eyes open for frass at the base of trees. Because I was used to Adam’s myro based rootstock I wasn’t in the habit of checking cots and borers got further into a couple of cots than they should have last year at 2 separate sites I manage.
Alan, I’ve just reported a tiny bit of evidence that I observed. Statistically speaking, the probability that two canker-susceptible varieties out of seven would both end up on the Myro rootstock is 1/21 (just under 5%). Possible? Yes. Likely? No. I obviously don’t have time and resources to conduct a scientifically meaningful experiment. And even if I did, my results would not necessarily apply to different climate and soil conditions. Just another piece of anecdotal evidence relevant to California: Fowler Nurseries (a big California wholesale nursery) currently does not offer apricots on Myro (see http://www.fowlernurseries.com/New%20Pages/Apricots.htm). They still use Myro for plums (see http://www.fowlernurseries.com/New%20Pages/Plums.htm), so there might be a reason why they exclude this rootstock for apricots.
No, your tiny sample and 5% odds mean almost nothing. If 20 folks on this forum grew a few apricots then the odds are one would experience some similar anomaly that would lead us to a false conclusion.
However, in CA, UC Davis doesn’t recommend myro, but not because of canker susceptibility. They suggest its graft unions are more likely to snap off in the wind. In the N.east I’ve had all kinds of problems with apricots- all related to cambium freeze but I’ve never had a tree snap at the union, so I doubt that is a big problem here. Selection of rootstocks is partially regional and ACN, the largest east coast supplier of apricot trees, propagates exclusively on myro.
http://fruitandnuteducation.ucdavis.edu/fruitnutproduction/Apricot/Apricot_scions__rootstock/
The above advisory is from Davis and apparently Citation is on the way to becoming the most popular rootstock for apricots in the state responsible for most of it’s commercial production in the country, so even if your issue is coincidental it may have steered you to the best rootstock for you. But the poster is an east coast grower so I’m not sure how this applies there.
He hasn’t suggested citation as an option. I like the rootstock but haven’t grown apricot on it.