Peach Tree Root Stock

14 years ago

I had a 2nd year Contender from Gurney's that died following our very cold winter. The rootstock has grown from the base of the plant, and it is producing what looks like a very vigorous tree.

Does anyone know what rootstock Gurney's uses for Contender?

Does anyone have experience growing peaches on the rootstock, and if so what quantity and quality peaches were produced?

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Comments (7)

franktank232
14 years ago
I can't even tell if my peaches from gurney's were grafted. If they were, the graft must be buried.

Who knows what they use. Probably some seedling rootstock.

I've been eating peaches for about a week and i'm getting sick of them! Avg size of these Reliance seems to be about a tennis ball. I'm starting to think i have too many peach trees :)
olpea
14 years ago
I've ordered a few hard-to-get varieties from the Henry Fields/Gurneys conglomerate and called them inquiring about the rootstock. They've always been able to tell me the supposed rootstock. The customer reps seem to have more detailed information, than what's in the catalog.
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Your tree should survive. Try to tie it off so it isn't moving until it can root down next year. Also water it good right now so that the roots/rootball are in good contact with the soil. Also that's awfully tall for a newly planted tree and probably the reason it blew over. It probably needs heavy pruning but it's hard to say how much without a picture. I'd probably have pruned it back to no more than 4-5ft at planting. Also did you spread the roots when you planted? If not you might what to do that now. If you just pulled it out of a pot and planted without spreading or cutting circling roots, it may not do well.
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Olympia, I think rootstock has little effect on the flavor of peaches. The peach/plum hybrid rootstock Citation is supposed to produce a little sweeter peach, but I don't like that rootstock. It's more sensitive to drought than peach seedling rootstocks. I had one peach on Citation and it required considerably more babying than I'm used to. If flavor is what you are looking for, I'd focus more on the variety of the peach instead of the rootstock. For most people one seedling peach rootstock is going to be as good as the next. There are some rootstocks that address specific growing problems (i.e. Guardian addresses Peach Tree Short Life and Nemagard addresses certain nematode problems) but for the most part common rootstocks like Lovell, Halford, ect. behave the same. For growing apricots, seedling apricot rootstock (like Manchurian) is considerably more hardy than apricots on peach roots. For apricot trees, Manchurian is also less invigorating than peach roots. Or saying it another way, apricot trees on peach roots are larger than standard apricots on apricot roots. For peaches, in the long run, it probably doesn't matter what seedling peach rootstock your trees are on. If it's cold enough to kill the rootstock, it would probably kill the grafted portion of the tree, regardless of the roots underneath it. Nemagard is supposed to be especially winter tender, so I would avoid that one.
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I have a similar situation. I bought an ornamental peach tree from a local retailer purely for landscaping purposes. It was either the first or second year, after setting it out, that I realized it was struggling and eventually the main trunk died back. However, the tree sprouted 4 main new growths from the the roots. Since then, it has grown quite rapidly & is now bearing edible fruit from an otherwise original non-edible dwarf. The plus side is, they have a wonderful peach flavor, but I have no idea what they are. I even thought that they could possibly be nectarines because of the firm flesh, but they have a light fuzz on the outter skin. Like the other users mentioned in their posts, those type trees typically produce small, hard, non edible blossoms, & it did the first 2 years. After the main trunk died, the whole ball game changed! I love peaches so I’m not complaining, but there is absolutely no telling what variety was used in order to get to the dwarf ornamental tree that I purchased. Whatever the variety, they remain firm, hold a more yellow color with an ever so slight partial turning to peach red on one side, & then begin their turning loose to fall to the ground. This is typically an indicator that the fruit is ripe an ready to eat. They may be a mixture of peach, plum, nectarine, etc. grafts, idk, but they sure taste good, & hey, they haven’t made me sick or killed me yet, LOL !
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If bought at a store, the rate of failure will be greater, especially if they were stored inside. Bare root trees bought through the mail have a much higher success rate. If I had a 50% failure rate from a place I bought the trees I would never buy there again. Bare root trees do grow better than container trees long term. Container trees tend to be root bound and do not grow as well. Potted berry plants also seem to suffer more than bare rooted. I have much better first year growth on bare rooted berry plants than ones grown in pots. The main thing is to plant the trees or bushes as soon as they arrive. If they are sitting in a plastic bag for a couple of weeks the death loss goes way up.
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Beeone
14 years ago
I had a Gurney's peach rootstock that grew for years in the hopes it would produce fruit--although I didn't realize it was a rootstock until much later. When if finally bloomed and set some peaches last year, they got about 1 1/2" long, maybe an inch in diameter, and were pretty well inedible. Just my experience.
theaceofspades
14 years ago
Email Gurneys customer service. Ask for an 'information sheet' on Reliance peach. You get the information sheet by email the next day. The root stock and other detailed information is on it.
mark_roeder 4B NE Iowa
Original Author
14 years ago
beone,

Have you had other peach trees that produced edible fruit?

Ace,

Tonight I e-mailed Gurney's concerning the variety of rootstock. I'll give a report on their reponse.
mark_roeder 4B NE Iowa
Original Author
14 years ago
Here is the response from Gurney's:

Standard Contender is on Halford rootstock, and Semi-dwarf is on Redleaf rootstock.

Is anyone familiar with the ability of Redleaf to produce fruit?
olpea
14 years ago
I have a relative with a producing Redleaf rootstock. I gave them the tree and they killed the grafted variety with Round-up. The rootstock grew from the dead scion. The rootstock tree is very ornamental. However, the peaches are very small. From my information, Redleaf is edible, but has a very small fruit to pit ratio. In past years, the squirrels have stolen all their peaches, I don't expect this year to be different.

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Peach Tree Root Stock

Comments (7)

franktank232

olpea

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mark_roeder 4B NE Iowa
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Peach Tree Root Stock

Comments (7)

franktank232

olpea

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Beeone

theaceofspades

mark_roeder 4B NE IowaOriginal Author

mark_roeder 4B NE IowaOriginal Author

olpea

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mark_roeder 4B NE Iowa
Original Author

mark_roeder 4B NE Iowa
Original Author