I have been researching plum rootstocks for the last week or so and it has been difficult to find a lot of information on the performance of St. Julian A root stock for euro plums. Does anyone have any experience with St. Julian A in zone 7 or a climate anything like the Mid-Atlantic?
I have a Nadia on St Julian in 6B mid-atlantic. The thing is growing very well. I’d say I have moderate soil on the clay side of things. I planted it this past spring so not a whole lot to report other than its growing well.
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I have Jefferson and Yakima on St Julian. They are pretty vigorous and, perhaps consequently, slow to bear. They flowered without really setting fruit in their 4th or 5th year.
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I have several plums on St. Julian A which are now about 12 years old. It has been a perfectly fine rootstock. Most of my plums are on Myro which is also fine. My favorite rootstock for Euro plums is Citation, it is more precocious than the others. But Citation does not seem to be good in all locations.
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Over here in Germany (Zone 7) St. Julian A ist the standard rootstock for plums (Euro), apricots and peaches. Its very compatible and doesnt sucker. Its less vigorous than Myro.
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My St. Julian sucker. I’ve started new trees that way. I view moderate suckering as a positive quality. I guess it would be bad in an orchard that isn’t tended. Snipping of 1 or 2 suckers a year doesn’t even register on the maintenance scale.
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Well, it might do some suckering under certain conditions, for instance when there is root damage. But it really doesnt sucker much.
Are you sure not talking about St. Julien GF 655/2? That one isnt used that much anymore because its suckering badly.
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I am not sure. I got my first from One Green World maybe 10 years ago. My notes say St. Julien, but I may have used Julien and Julian interchangeably. I’ve never seen any designation for sale other than “A” or not specified.
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I had a typo in my first post. The rootstocks are called st julien a and st julien gf 655/2.
Burnt Ridge Nursery describes St. Julian A as “causes some suckering”. http://www.burntridgenursery.com/Rootstock/products/98/
Maybe climate has something to do with it.
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My Nadia on St Julian A from Raintree nursery that I planted in 2015 seems to be the source of rootstock suckers that are coming up as much as 16 feet from the trunk. I’ve just noticed them for the first time this year.
Confirmed not to be seedlings from the Nadia pits:
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@murky
Does your tree do a lot of rootsuckers?
I grow at least 5 trees on St. Julien A. The oldest was planted in 2011, all the others are 5-7 years old. I get some rootsucker from the oldest tree and one of the younger trees, but not a lot, 2 or 3 every other year. They always emerge in the same spot up to 6 feet from the base of the tree.
I am now leaning to more vigorous rootstock. I have fast drying sandy soil. St Julien A proofed to be quite weak growing in those conditions. Thats my only concern with it right now.
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This is the first time I’ve noticed suckers from this tree, but there are a bunch of them. It was planted in 2015, so 8 years in.
I have an older tree whose rootstock started as a sucker of St. Julian, and it’s sent up a bunch of suckers for years now. Seems like they come up in the mulch, or maybe I just notice because that’s where they don’t get mowed.
We have deep clay soil.
My sand is almost soil. St Julian A stands under Ersinger Europlum, bought from Raintree in 2019. Ersinger was several years old by the look of it upon arrival, producing its first bloom and fruit last year ('22). Twice as many fruits are developing as I write this.
So far this St. Julian/Julien A (seen it spelled both ways, what do I know?) hasn’t pushed any suckers. The one surprise to me, mentioned elsewhere, is the early onset of dormancy each fall, which has been a boon two years running If it limits the size of the tree to some extent, time will tell.
As for suckering, could that be a function of a strain within the rootstock cultivar?
First you have to consider possible mixup in the rootstock used by the nursery. Thats the case with the oldest of my trees described above. The nursery did send a lot of mislabeled trees with that tree, 3 out of 5 varieties where mislabeled. With the tree in question they got the variety right. It is absolutely possible they also mislabeled their rootstock.
That said all of its characteristics fit St. Julien A.
Second there are different selections called St. Julien, eg. St. Julien A, St. Julien INRA 655/2, St. Julien „Pixy“ and some more. We are talking about St. Julien A.
Some suckering still fits the description of St. Julien A. So I would guess the different behavior of our rootstock might be due to environmental influences (type of soil, damage to the roots etc.).
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How big are your trees getting? I was going to add a plum and im seeing estimates all over for st julien from 10 to 20 ft. Was hoping to have a smaller tree as im running out of room. How does it compare to the more common citation?
That post was 8 years ago… the plums are maybe 12’ high now. St. Julian has been similar to Citation in my orchard.
I keep all my trees max 12’ whatever the rootstock… just prune away is my philosophy.
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