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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.