I have purchased several fruit trees in California, supposedly on Lovell Rootstock, but after the years, some trees have died and the rootstock grows to be a peach tree. Now 20 years later, I order Lovell rootstocks for grafting and its a totally different animal. (looks more like an apricot). Those are two totally different plants. If some people are interested in my hypothesis, I’ll post pictures.
If I’m not mistaken ‘Lovell’ is a seed grown strain and as a result must certainly be experiencing genetic drift since it’s not clonal, but it should look like peach no matter what. It should have no apricot ancestry.
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I looked online and it is described like an apricot with a peach seed.
Maybe they sent me the wrong rootstock, but the peach grafts took very well, plums not so much.
https://youtu.be/D5d_fGppSK4 The suckers I’m removing on rootstock look like apricot and those were shipped to me as Lovell rootstock.
There are several rootstocks sold as Lovell. Here are two of them at the Davis NCGR repository.
LOV-1-DHAPLOID: From colchicine treatment of haploid shoot, 1977. Tree very vigorous. Flower non-showy. Pollen-fertile. Fruit large, round, very firm, clingstone. Light blush. Flesh yellow, coarse, juicy, good quality. Ripens after Elberta.
LOV-1-Haploid: From open-pollinated seed of Lovell peach, 1976. Tree vigorous on diploid rootstock. Trunk normal (not gnarled). Unfruitful.
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If they are always propagated from seeds wouldn’t every one of them be a different rootstock? I wonder why they don’t just call them peach seedling at this point or Bailey type, Lovell type, since even self pollinated seeds aren’t clones even if they can be very similar. When apricot seedlings are used for rootstock they are simply called seedlings. Are peaches the only species that use seedling rootstocks that are identified by a specific name?
Why would they go to the trouble of describing the fruit if it is likely to vary from seed to seed?
Is Nemagard also seed propagated? I could just look it up, but I’m guessing it is.
I believe Guardian rootstock is also seed propagated and was released as bulk seed. The original selection had peach and nectarine phenotypes; a few were white flowered.
Lovell is a peach, it used to be a canning peach. See Foundation Plant Services for details:
Lovell used to be a canning and drying peach before a rogue chance seedling of interest (in regards to rootstock) was discovered. Now widely used as a rootstock where root-knot nematode is not a problem. Origin: 1882, G.W. Thissell, Winters, CA. Precocious. Not cold hardy. In NC-140 Trials: 1984, 2001, 2002, 2009 Has been a standard peach rootstock for many years, but now is not widely used in California because of root-knot nematode susceptibility.
The ones that you got which look more like an apricot don’t sound like Lovell.
My understanding is seeds from the same peach are wanted as rootstock for commercial growers so the vigor will be uniform. I just use seedlings of my own peaches as rootstocks as they sprout up in my yard for free. The vigor doesn’t seem all that different between them but I am sure there are differences.
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That explains it. Thank you Richard!
I probably got an apricot type of rootstock because they sure look like an apricot. Thanks Scott.