North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

The late Percy Wright of Saskatchewan mentioned in the Pomona that he 
had an uncle in a marginal peach growing area in BC who liked to graft a 
Prairie-hardy cherry-plum (Prunus bessey x P. salicina crosses; Sapa, 
Sapalta, Dura, Manor for example) into the tops of his peach trees. The 
theory was that the cherry-plum would influence the peach to go into 
dormancy earlier and advance farther into its cold-resistance cycle 
before the really cold weather hit, and the uncle may have hoped that 
the cherry-plum would give better maximum hardiness.

The late Fred Ashworth, a NAFEX elder and co-founder, reportedly used to 
bind up the branches of peach trees (presumably pruned small for the 
purpose; I disremember whether he used dwarfing roostocks) and stack old 
tires around them. I expect he used some kind of roof on the stack. This 
was at Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York, which I think is classed 
as Zone 4 by optimists.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


On 27/03/2011 10:58 PM, Mark and Alisha Fehringer wrote:
> The question was asked about using Prunus americana, native American plum, as 
> a rootstock for peach.  I budded some peaches onto native plum roots 5-6 
> years ago with mixed results.  Each year they put on a nice growth of 2-4'.  
> The grafts seem plenty strong as they hold up against our high winds.  
> However they probably have had at least 90% dieback each winter.  Last summer 
> I mounded some earth up around them to try to get the peach to self-root and 
> they appear to have overwintered very well this time, but of course I'm not 
> sure there's a connection.  I was going to remove them this spring if they 
> had severe dieback, but it looks like they might be pardoned another year.
>
> Mark
> Northeast Colorado
> zone 4 and windy