The quality of the rootstock on which the grafted fruit tree grows determines its future resistance to frost, diseases, and affects the yield and longevity of the tree. When buying fruit trees, you may encounter the following rootstocks:
Myrobalane - plum and apricot rootstock
Generatively propagated rootstock (seedling). Suitable for warm, dry locations with deep and permeable soils. Primarily suitable as a base for growing large trees (standard trunks) with a final height of 6m and more. The roots grow steeply down and give the tree strong growth, later yields and good resistance to drought. The native seedlings show good affinity for the noble varieties, but are susceptible to verticillosis (wilt disease) and root mold.
GF677 - peach rootstock
Peach x almond, Prunus persica x Prunus amygdalus. Although it grows strongest among the peach rootstocks, they are the most important rootstocks in the Pannonian region. Their advantages lie primarily in their resistance to chlorosis (up to 12% activated lime) and their good adaptation to dry soils. They yield faster than from seedling with the same fruit quality. They are also suitable for replanting after peach seedlings and have excellent compatibility with peach and nectarine varieties.
TORINEL® avifel - apricot rootstock
Could become one of the most important apricot rootstocks for modern spindle and hedge training. This hybrid of 'Reine Claude d'Althan' x 'Reine Claude de Bavay' grows weaker than 655-2. Torinel is very compatible with all types of apricots, but is incompatible with many types of peaches and nectarines. Apricot trees grafted on Torinel yield very early and are resistant to root suffocation. Torinel® produces few but thorny root runners. Torinel® and WaxWa need higher soil temperatures in winter to sap than Ishtara®, Jaspi® fereley or Pumiselekt, which can be an advantage for apricots after warm weather periods in January and subsequent cold return.
PYRODWARF® - pear rootstock
The advantages of Pyrodwarf are its very good winter hardiness and its insensitivity to lime-induced chlorosis. The stability is good. As a pear type, Pyrodwarf has good compatibility with all pear varieties, so that intermediate processing is not necessary. Pyrodwarf is recommended for locations unsuitable for quince rootstock. Pyrodwarf should be combined with large-fruited varieties.
GISELA® 5 - cherry and sourcherry rootstock
This is a cross between P. cerasus and P. canescens. The growth rate is weaker than 50% of F 12/1. The tree promotes very early fertility, has considerable adaptability to different soil types, is stable from the 4th year onwards, is frost-hardy, supports horizontal branch positioning and does not produce root runners. For spindle training in commercial fruit growing or for small tree forms in home gardens, Gisela 5 has proven to be the best in recent years in terms of both yield and fruit quality for sweet cherries.
Wavit® - plum and apricot rootstock
Brand new on the market in the future will be an in-vitro propagated Wangenheims that grows absolutely uniformly. WAVIT® Prudom is significantly more expensive (like Gisela 5) than a seedling due to the meristem propagation, which pays off in the nursery due to the uniform growth (no trace types), the good acceptance of the noble eyes and the high frost resistance. In addition to the uniform, weak growth, the lack of root runners, the early and large yields and the high climatic robustness are worthwhile for the fruit grower. In many regions, plum tree dieback (Valsa, Pseudomonas, ...) is a major concern. For this reason, Jasper fereley should not be planted in stagnant areas. It is better to refine sensitive noble varieties on the very robust WAVIT® (20 cm and above). Wavit corresponds to the long-sought ideal of a plum rootstock for intensive planting systems on good, vigorous, plum-bearing soils. On dry, poor sites, Wavit is too productive and, like many growth-reducing rootstocks, quickly reduces the fruit size when overgrown.
WAVIT® is a plum rootstock made from Wangenheim early plum seedlings that has been specially selected for modern apricot cultivation. Since Wangenheims seedlings grow quite differently, we have been trying for a long time to make this very robust rootstock more homogeneous. The first step was to produce kernels only from a completely isolated virus- and phytoplasma-free sperm donor facility where Wangenheims can only fertilize itself (WaxWa). This has led to significantly more consistent documentation. Nevertheless, this generative propagation leads to divisions where trace types appear again and again, which then grow extremely weakly and produce smaller fruits. Individual trace types repeatedly lead to affinity problems, especially with apricots. That's why clones were selected in several places in Europe and propagated vegetatively. The currently most successful and widespread one is WAVIT® Prudom. Through in-vitro propagation, WAVIT produces absolutely uniform short growth, which is approx. 10% below that of Torinel and GF 655-2. On good, vigorous soils, Wavit is the best rootstock for modern apricot cultivation; on dry locations, peach rootstocks or myrobalan clones are preferred. WAVIT is robust against chlorosis and root suffocation and, like Wangenheims, generally produces very healthy, long-lived trees. A good affinity with all apricot varieties in our range, early and high yields, the absence of root rash and its climatic robustness ensure rapid distribution.
Saint Julien A - plum, peach and apricot rootstock
Even though the St. Julien GF 655-2 was preferred in the 90s due to its high performance, it had to be recognized that for reasons of tree health, preference had to be given to St. Julien A. St. Julien A is well suited to heavy and moist soils for plums, apricots and peaches. The growth is medium strong, slightly weaker than Jaspy Fereley, but stronger than WaxWa and WaVit.
Peach varieties grafted onto this plum base are particularly recommended for moist soils or in home gardens where there is a lot of watering. On light, dry soils, peach-specific rootstocks such as Montclar® produce larger fruits. Another advantage of Sankt Julien A is the intensive rooting, which leads to fewer tree failures in the planting year than with peach seedlings with their low fine root mass.
Until the mid-1990s, St. Julien was the most important apricot rootstock in modern commercial cultivation on 'sloping hedges'. Their very soil-dependent, more or less strong root shoot formation and their lack of affinity with some varieties lead us to search for new ideals despite good fruit qualities.
