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nafex - [NAFEX] Hardy Prunus, was Re: Staking of immature fruit trees

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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Hardy Prunus, was Re: Staking of immature fruit trees
  • Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:54:02 -0500

Those in Zone 4 who really like peaches and are on well-drained sandy soil might want to see if they like the mandschurica/armeniaca cross prairie-hardy apricots, like Westcot and Morden 604. They might only get a crop 2 years out of 5 but that's better than nothing, and they are a pretty tree.

Those on heavier soil could try St. Julien A rootstocks if they have reliable heavy snow cover.

Or they could experiment with the compatibility of Krikon Damson roots or interstems, or Yellow Egg (might be marginally hardy) interstems on hardy plum stocks. Pershore Yellow Egg is considered compatible with apricot in Britain, and I presume that the North American Yellow Eggs are related, though that is certainly not conclusive.

And, if you haven't considered quality plums and you can handle black knot, you should think about plums, maybe start with Mount Royal (hardy to about Agriculture Canada zone 4a). Commercial plum growers, for respectable commercial reasons, insist on picking plums unripe. If you haven't eaten a properly ripened high-quality plum (and I expect that most beginning home growers haven't) you don't know what you're missing.


The Minnesota station had Krikon Damsom (still popular in Sweden, possibly hardy to about 3b, at any rate a little hardier than Mount Royal) around 1950 and perhaps they still do. I think Agriculture Canada still has it in their collection.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



Richard MURPHY wrote:

[snip]

If anybody knows of a 'no-brainer' peach tree for zone 4, please describe it !!
As for today, I know of no reliable type of peach for that climate.

[snip]




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