Breeding Peach Rootstocks for Canada and the Northern United States

Abstract

Abstract Peach seedling rootstocks [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] have been and continue to be the most important roostocks used for peaches in North America. In the North Central Region of the United States, Simons and Carlson (21) surveyed commercial nurseries in 1966 and 1967 and reported that 97.7% of the peaches were propagated on peach seedling understock. The principal seedling rootstock cultivars were ‘Lovell’, ‘Halford’, ‘Red Leaf and ‘Suncling’, accounting for 95.8% of the propagated trees. The remaining 2.3% of the trees were propagated on P. armeniaca L., P. tomentosa Thunb., P. besseyi Bailey, P. hortulana Bailey, and P. insititia L. cv. St. Julian A. Of these, 1.2% of the trees were on P. besseyi which was used for its dwarfing ability.