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dawgdrvr

St. Julian 'A' Rootstock

dawgdrvr
16 years ago

Hi,

I have 4 peach trees that I planted 3 years ago. my dogs dug out of their pasture and into my orchard. they then proceeded to dig up and gnaw on one of my peach trees (staurn/donut) they chewed it down past any branches .it is only about 15 or 18 inches tall with no branches or leaves for photosynthesis to take place. anyway I replanted my poor lil tree and now i have 2 suckers coming from the base of the tree my questions are

1) Should I just pull it and plant another next spring?

2) Should I let the suckers grow/what kind of tree will St. Julian become?

3) Will the 18 inch little stump produce branches or new growth next spring?

thanx

Cody

Comments (10)

  • jellyman
    16 years ago

    Cody:

    Pull it up and replant. St. Julian has been a great dwarfing rootstock for me on a Puget Gold apricot, but the suckers will produce some kind of plum, or nothing at all.

    If you are in a grafting mood, however, you could allow one strong sucker to grow up and try grafting or budding next season. It's not so difficult, and you already have the rootstock established.

    Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

  • murkwell
    16 years ago

    Or if you'd like you can graft Japanese plums to it. I'm looking to establish an Asian Plum tree with "Howard's Miracle" on it.

    I haven't decided whether to buy a tree from a nursery, or to get a rootstock and graft it. One Green World sells that variety on St. Julian (that's what made me think to post).

    I'm trying to figure out what the best root stock to use is. I guess its nice to know that if I go with one of those St. Julian trees I could graft peaches to it also if I wanted to.

  • plumfan
    16 years ago

    Murky,

    Consider Citation rootstock, as it is half peach and half Japanese plum (salicina), so good for either peach or plum. I am pretty sure they had Citation for sale at the HOS budding demo a few weeks ago. They might still have the odd, unsold one if you check!

  • murkwell
    16 years ago

    I don't think I'm serious about peaches. I'd like a rootstock that is most likely to make a healthy tree with high quality plums in my soil and climate. Naturally small would be real nice also.

  • plumfan
    16 years ago

    Murky,

    If you ever want to fiddle with attatching a peach to any of your plums you can get a piece of "bridge" stock from me that is half peach.

    About dwarfing stocks in the Pacific Northwest, it seems that stonefruit dwarfers make the scion portion susceptible to Pseudomonas rot in the spring. I have had zero trouble when using regular plum seedling rootstock, like salicina. Of course it will develop into a larger tree, left to its own vices, but I prefer the disease free aspects of standard stocks when it comes to plums. And there is good old fashion summer pruning to make it behave!

    Apples and pears are in a totally different scheme - they don't seem to get Pseudomonas.

  • murkwell
    16 years ago

    plumfan,

    Thanks for the offer. My only current plum tree is on a seedling peach rootstock I believe. Its a multigrafted europlum from One Green world. It doesn't seem to be the healthiest tree in the world. Both last summer and this I've had a lot of leaf problems that I haven't nailed down.

    Now its mostly the Italian Prune portion that has faded yellow speckles on the leaves. Most of the rest of the tree was Early Laxton and has been cut back to acommodate various grafts.

    The spot(s) I have for another tree aren't very big. It would be between the sidewalk and street. I was thinking about giving Pixy a try. I see the neighbor's plum trees and I hate to think that mine might get that out of control if left unpruned for a couple of years.

  • shannon-barrett_bigpond_com
    13 years ago

    Hi Jellyman,

    How dwarfing has your St Julian stocks been? I am in a wheelchair and planning an orchard that i can manage partly myself. Also, do you know if St Julian A is the same thing?

  • nyRockFarmer
    9 years ago

    Very old thread, but I want to know more about this rootstock.

    Is St. Julian good for heavy clay soils that can become water logged from time to time? I've read conflicting info on this.

    If this rootstock is as versatile with stone fruits as advertized, why isn't it more popular? There must be some downside here.

  • alcedo 4/5 W Europe
    9 years ago

    Over here St.Julian A its the most common rootstock for plums. itâÂÂs good for heavy clay soils that can become water logged. Without pruning, there isnâÂÂt any dwarfing on this stock IMO.
    it will develop into a large tree amounts to 16 ft. tall.
    Current modern plum orchards are switched to HD planting on Krymsk1, they prefer water-retentive soils, and mulching is therefore particularly important for plum trees.

    From personal observations my peaches, necs and apricots grafted on Krymsk1 there were signals off incompatibilities.

    Since a few years my arrows are aimed at âÂÂnewâ stocks: âÂÂWavitâ 60% of Myrobalan vigor
    The growth reduction off Wavit compared to St.Julian A,
    amounts about 30 to 35 percent.
    Wavit and Krymsk 86 are promising in my experience

  • nyRockFarmer
    9 years ago

    Alcedo, thanks for the input. My interest in St. Julian is for true peach and apricot compatibility combined with the hardiness of plum roots. Specific size isn't that important, but height between 10 ft. and 20 ft. is preferable.

    I've never heard of Wavit. Is that for plums and apricots only? I don't believe it would be something available in North America anytime soon.

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