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Is this a grafted tree?

 
Lauren Ritz
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posted 4 months ago
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This tree is probably 40 or 50 years old. I was told it's a Stanley plum--I think it's actually a seedling from a Stanley, if it holds any relation to Stanley at all. A house up the street also has a plum tree, which I suspect is the parent of this tree.

I see no graft line. There are two "suckers" coming up from the base which I would like to keep, but only if they will give us the same fruit. If it's grafted, of course the fruit will not be the same.

Does anyone see a graft line? Is there any other way to identify whether this is a grafted tree (short of waiting until one of the root suckers fruits).
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Zone 5b/6a, alkaline soil, 12 inches of water per year. For now the goal is a water independent urban homestead with edible landscaping and food forest.

 
Mike Haasl
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posted 4 months ago
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I suspect it's much too old to tell but we'll see what the experts say.  I think you're right that waiting for a sucker to fruit would be the only way to really know.

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William Schlegel
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posted 4 months ago
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Stanley, Italian, and Green Gage among others are Prunus domestica plums. One nice thing about them is that fairly similar plums result from trees you grow from seed. A man came into a landscape center once and told me he routinely sold Stanley seedlings as Stanley. Probably not quite accurate. So if a rootstock is present it might not be Prunus domestica but perhaps some other prunus. However, you might be able to grow a very decent plum from its seed.

Western Montana gardener and botanist in zone 6a according to 2012 zone update.

Gardening on lakebed sediments with 7 inch silty clay loam topsoil, 7 inch clay accumulation layer underneath, have added sand in places.

 
Lauren Ritz
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posted 3 months ago
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I'm pretty sure now that it's a grafted tree. The flowers on the root suckers are significantly different, smaller, with a very open center rather than the confusion of stamens on the main tree. The petals on the main tree are also twisted rather than flat, giving a much more cluttered appearance.

I did find another seedling, which I'm going to attempt to keep.
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Zone 5b/6a, alkaline soil, 12 inches of water per year. For now the goal is a water independent urban homestead with edible landscaping and food forest.

 
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