Where to buy standard size rootstock

For the home orchardist, it seems the standard is using semi-dwarf rootstock. But considering the longevity of these rootstock, I’m wondering if there’s a place to buy standard rootstock and what they are. Would it just be a rootstock you grow from seed? I guess I need a little education on how that works.

Raintree and Burntridge both sell Antonovka rootstock for about $3 each

2 Likes

The simplest way to do this (i.e. do it all yourself) if you can tolerate a small amount of diversity – just save Red Delicious seeds, stratify in the fridge for about a month and the plant them out as they sprout. You’re in a warm zone so you’ve got a long growing season. You will probably be able to get them to grow to the point where you can t-bud and then force by Fall. I have 2 feet of growth on seeds planted out this winter. Anotonovka seeds will give seedlings that are fairly uniform. There are also EMLA/MM rootstocks that you can purchase that are standard sizes which are clonally propagated.

But what do you do with the red delicious apples you bought to get the seeds out of, :grin:

2 Likes

I actually had some really nice Red Delicious the other day. Not mushy. Crisp like what you’d expect from a Fuji, which is not how I remember them from childhood. I’m no expert on keeping apples in storage, but I’m gonna guess what makes an RD bad is a combination of several factors – There are too many people growing them, so demand is low. Then, most of the time they stay in cold storage for way too long, until they’re finally dumped on whatever store will take them or processed into juice and apple sauce.

I guess I should have clarified, I’m not talking about apples, I’m thinking more of stone fruit.

Nemaguard is grown from seed and it will give you a standard tree for peaches/plums – seed sources are online. Further clarify which stone fruits — Mazzard and Mahaleb are also seed grown for cherries.

2 Likes

You of course are right, I have that soft mushy RD of my childhood stuck in my head.

I’m focusing on the plum/apricot/almond/peach…in about that order of importance. I’m looking at doing a multiple graft tree (franken-tree) and I’d like to do it with the eye toward keeping it living longer.

@Derby42

COMPOST !

Mike

2 Likes

I’d go with Nemaguard if I wanted a standard sized tree. It’s compatible with all of those prunus species you want and should do fine in the Bay Area. DWN primarily puts everything on Citation, which is dwarfing. You may be able to just pick up a cheap tree from a box store, and if you track down the wholesaler you’ll probably find its on Nemaguard. For example, Coiner’s puts their peaches and plums on Nemaguard ( They have supplied costco in bareroot season).

Where are you at in Oakland? I lived all over the East Bay (In chronological order): El Cerrito, Alameda, Emeryville, Oakland (Montclair), Antioch, El Sobrante, Concord.

1 Like

Myro 29C is a good standard size rootstock for plums and apricots, CopenHaven Farms sells it in bunches of 25 or more. If you’re going to order, please let me know, I can use a few and can pick them up from Oakland. Apricot and peach seedlings are very easy to grow (for example, Lovell is grown from seeds). Just eat the fruit, clean the seeds, store them in fridge for a few months and plant in November. They will start growing around this time of year and by the end of season you will have 4-6 foot trees, ready to be grafted by the next season.

Edit: I was replying to @PlummerJosh, the topic starter, somehow, the reply went to @MES111, sorry about that.

@Stan

No need to apologize. Just wish I could be of more help on the subject.

Mike

I concur – peach/apricot seedlings are easy to grow – quick growers.

I’m in East Oakland by Mills College, in the banana belt. It’s a great place for growing, though powdery mildew seems to latch onto anything that’s peach based.

What about plums? This touches on the adaptability of grafting to different rootstocks. I know there are more complete guides to this in other posts, but in my mind, I see this tree as having Japanese and European plums along with apricots and a peach or 2 and some almonds for texture. But I suppose an apricot start/rootstock would be ideal for where I live. I know you can graft European plums to certain things, but not others.

This is truly a fascinating puzzle…

The Euro plum will be compatible with nemaguard. Even if you did have an issue remember there is always the option of using an interstem.

1 Like

It is indeed, and even the Greeks and Romans wrote about graft compatibility — and sometimes were wildly wrong — Here’s a fun read:

1 Like

Hi Stan,

What varieties have you grafted on Apricot seedlings? I have 3 fortuitous Apricot seedlings that popped up this winter.

I didn’t graft any yet, but going to do a bunch in the coming weeks (my seedlings aren’t fully out of dormancy yet). I think any apricot variety should be compatible with an apricot seedling. The main concern for me is size, as my seedlings are planted pretty dense, probably will have to control the size by aggressive summer pruning.

That’s a lot of information! I’ll read more of that when I have some time, but that seems to be pretty comprehensive. I would imagine that there was quite a lot of stumbling around with grafting…sort of like I’m doing.

Interstem? I’m guessing that’s grafting something that’s compatible with the rootstock and then grafting onto that. If I’m not mistaken, pluots are a good interstem between Japanese and Euro plums. I need a chart to draw all of this out. It’s dizzying.