Rootstocks for Plum trees
These plum rootstocks are suitable for most European plum varieties, as well as the closely related species of gages, damsons, and mirabelles. There are not as many plum rootstocks as there are for apples, and there are no extremely-dwarfing plum rootstocks.
St. Julien (larger)
The most versatile rootstock for plums, gages and damsons is St Julien. St. Julien is a member of the species Prunus insititia, which also includes damsons and mirabelles. It was originally grown for its fruit, which is not particularly pleasant to eat but useful for drying (see photo right). However its main use today is as a rootstock for other European plums. This nicely illustrates the fact that most fruit tree rootstocks are actually fruit trees of the same or closely-related species which happen to be useful for controlling scion-size, even if they are not that useful for fruit production themselves.
St. Julien rootstocks produce a tree which is substantially smaller than plum trees grown on their own roots. It is compatible with almost all plums and gages. (In fact it is also widely used for peaches, nectarines, and apricots, which are very closely related to plums).
Plum trees grown on St. Julien rootstocks tend to come into bearing after 3-4 years. They can be used to produce free-standing trees (with no staking required once established) and are also ideal for large fans for wall-training - a format which is particularly suitable for plums in more northerly latitudes. A mature fan will be 3m-5m across and 3m or so high.
St. Julien can be considered roughly equivalent to the apple MM106 roostock in the size of tree it produces.
Pixy (smaller)
A further selection of St. Julien called Pixy is now also used. This produces a somewhat smaller tree than St Julien, and is also slightly more precocious - the tree will bear fruit about a year earlier than the same variety grafted on St. Julien. Trees grown on this rootstock will need staking for the first 4-5 years, and prefer from better soil conditions and watering than trees on the St. Julien rootstock.
Pixy can be considered roughly equivalent to the apple M26 rootstock in the size of tree it produces.
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