STONE FRUITS

"Elephant Hide" Plum

Stone Fruit Tips:

There are no true dwarfing roots are available for stone fruits. Peach, nectarine, apricot and plum trees tend to be fairly moderate sized (10 feet tall, 15 feet wide), but cherry on the usual Mazzard root would be 30-50 feet tall, if you let it grow naturally. If you pruin them well you can maintain them at about 14-16 feet tall. The Colt cherry rootstock will keep the tree somewhat smaller, especially if you don't take great care of the tree. You might try a "Giessen" (Geisela) rootstocks to keep cherries smaller, but the tree will probably overset fruit unless carefully pruned each year. These rootstocks produce cherry trees about 1/2 as large as a full sized tree at maturity. Plan on the stone fruit tree (cherry, peach, nectarine, Apricot, plum) taking a fair amount of space after the first few years.

Picture of Cherry tree SIZE: See how large one of these trees wants to be. A Rainier Cherry Picxture:

Pruning Peaches and Nectarines: Proper Pruning is Vital to Production. Hit the link for winter pruning ideas.

Avoid serious over-production by budding or grafting a number or varieties on the peach or plum tree when it is young. (You can do this, it's easy.) This way, you can plant a peach and have three varieties for early mid and late season, plus any number of plums you wish, as plum can be easily budded onto peach wood. Who wants 300 pounds of Santa Rosa plums in late July from a single, one-variety tree? One limb will put out a nice small crop. There are so many varieties of peach, plum, and asian pear available, I won't try to list all the good ones. There are old varieties that have been lost to commerce that deserve a chance in back gardens, though, such as "Elephant Hide" plum.

Picture of "Green Gage?" Plum

Tree ripe Peaches: The reason to grow your own.

A good source of home garden fruit trees and vines is: Raintree Nursery, 391 Butts Rd., Morton, WA 98356 - E mail at RAINTREENURSERY@JUNO.COM