Patty, I have a Crimson Rocket peach on redleaf seedling, but I've only had it for one year so my experience with it is extremely limited. So far the tree has been growing vigorously and is very healthy. It grew about two feet last year (it's about 8 feet now) and has had no problems with disease. I let it get a couple of peaches last year just for a taste, and they were excellent. At least in my novice excited-to-get-anything-ripe opinion. :)

Rob

I was told that red leaf is Citation, it is now off-patent so places besides DWN are using it. This is not definitive, just "heresay".

Scott

Thanks, Rob and Scott. Very interesting! Rob, what you are describing fits with Citation. For me, it's very precocious and glad to know it's Citation, as that particular rootstock does well in my area. And, on an aside, I did find out that the chill hours for Flat Wonderful peach is about 500, so that will work for me. And, I hear you, Rob, if I can get anything this year, I'll be thrilled. Right now, my trees for the most part across the board have set some nice fruit. Now it's just getting things to the end without losing it all to bugs, birds or rodents.

Patty S.

Call them up and ask them what they use for rootstock... They will probably tell you....

There are several other red leaf peaches - so it might not be Citation...

Thanks

I did, John. They use Redleaf peach. That's what I was asking about. That particular rootstock. :-)

Patty S.

"I was told that red leaf is Citation, it is now off-patent so places besides DWN are using it. This is not definitive, just 'heresay'"

Actually Scott, that is heresay. Citation is supposedly a peach/plum interspecific (with maybe some apricot thrown in, depending on the source you read). Stark's Redleaf is a peach seedling that originated in TN (See link below.)

I've grown a Stark's Redleaf out (actually it was a tree I gave to a relative and he killed the scion portion of the tree and the rootstock grow out.) It's still alive and produces some fruit. The tree looks a lot like Flat Wonderful. The fruit is small, not very sweet, and ripens after Redhaven.

I've not grown any peach trees on Stark's Redleaf (except the one mentioned above that I gave away) but have some trees on Tenn. Nat. which is supposed to be closely related to Redleaf. Here, Tenn. Nat. performs similar to other seedling rootstocks - Lovell, Halford, Bailey, which is to say it performs well.

Dave Wilson puts a lot of their peaches on Citation, so it must perform well in CA. I had a peach tree on Citation once here and it didn't perform as well as the other rootstocks mentioned.

Here is a link that might be useful: Peach Rootstock Trial

Olpea, I looked up the heresay (a past post in this forum it turns out) and it looks like someone claimed "red leaf plum" was Citation. Probably someone somewhere used that term but I couldn't find any reference to it, and indeed Starks red leaf is a peach.

Scott

Citation is a plum-peach hybrid. The Dave Wilson rootstock tag has the plant patent number on it (5112). If anyone is interested the google link below describes it in detail.

http://www.google.com/patents/USPP5112

Interesting, econ. Thanks. Looks like the patent expired a while back, but yet, you don't see Citation rootstock sold anywhere. Aren't plant patents granted for a term of 20 years? The patent was issued Sept. 27, 1983, so it's been 29 almost 30 years. In any event, I did read through several rootstock trials, and looks like this is a very reliable semi-dwarfing rootstock. I don't think I have any really special growing issues where I live - I'm not on clay, don't have nematodes that I know of, don't get huge amounts of rain and can regulate the water since everything is on drip. So, we'll see how it compares to Citation and St. Julian A, Myro 29C, along with some peaches I have on standard rootstocks (Lovell and Nemaguard). I also have a nectarine and an apricot on Pumiselect. Interestingly, this supposed ultra-dwarfing rootstock isn't really keeping my Blenhein apricot all that small (apricots are notoriously vigorous where I live). Will be interesting to see how everything does this year on the various rootstocks, and in general since this will be my first fruit year :-) I have huge fruit set on several of my trees, especially those on Citation. I have had to do significant and repetitive thinning. I think I have it all, then I see a branch that has like 40 little fruitlets on it! Now, to get the #@%*&! snails out of my trees!

Patty S.

Is Stark redleaf Hiawatha? Curiousity. Anyone know? Thanks.