Sucker or family tree - greengage

[David]

We have a greengage which was grown in a pot for a year, then planted out
this year (I think - time is warped these days).

Anyway I noticed that not all the leaves were the same.
On further investigation it turns out that the lowest branch has small
leaves and the higher branches have large leaves.
Further, the lowest branch has small fruit and the other branches have
larger fruit.

It is difficult to work out exactly where the graft is, but it seems
logical that the lowest branch is from the rootstock.

Just checked the label and it is "Reine Claude d'Oullins" (Oullins Golden
Gage) on Prunus Hybrid St. Julien A rootstock.

I suppose in theory I should remove the branch from (apparently) below the
graft.
However it does seem to have a good crop of small fruit.
The main thing is to keep it controlled so that it does not take over and
overwhelm the grafted greengage.

My inclination is to keep it trimmed back enough to allow the grafted
variety to prosper, but to leave enough to have the bonus of a different
variety of fruit.

Thoughts?

Cheers




Dave R


--
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[Jim Jackson]

On 2022-07-14, David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> We have a greengage which was grown in a pot for a year, then planted out
> this year (I think - time is warped these days).
>
> Anyway I noticed that not all the leaves were the same.
> On further investigation it turns out that the lowest branch has small
> leaves and the higher branches have large leaves.
> Further, the lowest branch has small fruit and the other branches have
> larger fruit.
>
> It is difficult to work out exactly where the graft is, but it seems
> logical that the lowest branch is from the rootstock.
>
> Just checked the label and it is "Reine Claude d'Oullins" (Oullins Golden
> Gage) on Prunus Hybrid St. Julien A rootstock.

According to what I bought, I have exactly this, but 30 odd years old,
but without the St. Julien throwing a shoot. I found the gage slow to
fruit, it was 7 plus years after planting. The previous year my wife and I
were next to it and I said if it didn't fruit next year I'd grub it up!
It must have heard :-)

My Victoria Plum on St. Julien A throws lots of suckers. One of which I
let fruit - not very pleasant for eating fresh. Might be ok for cooking.
A green "plum". I'd cut out the lower branch and let the tree produce as
many gages as possible - the ripe fruit fresh from the tree is delicious.

Jim
near Wakefield

[David]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2022 21:28:59 +0000, Jim Jackson wrote:

> On 2022-07-14, David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> We have a greengage which was grown in a pot for a year, then planted
>> out this year (I think - time is warped these days).
>>
>> Anyway I noticed that not all the leaves were the same.
>> On further investigation it turns out that the lowest branch has small
>> leaves and the higher branches have large leaves.
>> Further, the lowest branch has small fruit and the other branches have
>> larger fruit.
>>
>> It is difficult to work out exactly where the graft is, but it seems
>> logical that the lowest branch is from the rootstock.
>>
>> Just checked the label and it is "Reine Claude d'Oullins" (Oullins
>> Golden Gage) on Prunus Hybrid St. Julien A rootstock.
>
> According to what I bought, I have exactly this, but 30 odd years old,
> but without the St. Julien throwing a shoot. I found the gage slow to
> fruit, it was 7 plus years after planting. The previous year my wife and
> I were next to it and I said if it didn't fruit next year I'd grub it
> up! It must have heard :-)

<snip>

The Gage was an impulse buy from Lidl.
At least one year ago.
Life has been complicated of late and I can't be sure.
Could be 2.
I assume that it was 2 years old on purchase.

Planted up in a larger pot with plenty of fertiliser and organic matter
and it thrived.
Pot planted because the permanent location was not yet prepared.
It fruited a little last year (pot or ground).

Now planted out and going great guns, with plenty of healthy looking fruit.
I am wondering if a pot grown (or at least potted up before sale) tree
benefits from a year in a larger pot prior to planting out?

Bought a Victoria from Homebase to keep the Gage company because we love
Victorias and there wasn't one at Lidl.
Treated the same way and also doing pretty well.

The Greengage at our last house did take a few years to start cropping
properly but was then a wonderful resource.
It wasn't a Golden Gage, though.

Cheers



Dave R


--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

[David Rance]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2022 18:36:05 David wrote:

>We have a greengage which was grown in a pot for a year, then planted out
>this year (I think - time is warped these days).
>
>Anyway I noticed that not all the leaves were the same.
>On further investigation it turns out that the lowest branch has small
>leaves and the higher branches have large leaves.
>Further, the lowest branch has small fruit and the other branches have
>larger fruit.
>
>It is difficult to work out exactly where the graft is, but it seems
>logical that the lowest branch is from the rootstock.
>
>Just checked the label and it is "Reine Claude d'Oullins" (Oullins Golden
>Gage) on Prunus Hybrid St. Julien A rootstock.
>
>I suppose in theory I should remove the branch from (apparently) below the
>graft.
>However it does seem to have a good crop of small fruit.
>The main thing is to keep it controlled so that it does not take over and
>overwhelm the grafted greengage.
>
>My inclination is to keep it trimmed back enough to allow the grafted
>variety to prosper, but to leave enough to have the bonus of a different
>variety of fruit.
>
>Thoughts?

Well, I've had a Reine Claude for the last thirty years. It has always
been a heavy cropper with very, very sweet fruit. Also it throws up lots
of suckers each year but they never succeed in fruiting, even when I
don't get round to pruning the suckers every season.

What you describe sounds very much as though yours is a sucker
especially as you say that the fruit is smaller. I once grew a greengage
tree from a neighbour's root which had invaded my garden. Yes, it had
small leaves and small fruit, but was never worth doing anything with
them as there was more stone than flesh.

Anyway, my inclination would be to cut it off. The only problem then
would be that, each year, you would probably get a myriad of suckers
trying to replace it!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

[David]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2022 18:36:05 +0000, David wrote:

> We have a greengage which was grown in a pot for a year, then planted
> out this year (I think - time is warped these days).
>
> Anyway I noticed that not all the leaves were the same.
> On further investigation it turns out that the lowest branch has small
> leaves and the higher branches have large leaves.
> Further, the lowest branch has small fruit and the other branches have
> larger fruit.
>
> It is difficult to work out exactly where the graft is, but it seems
> logical that the lowest branch is from the rootstock.
>
> Just checked the label and it is "Reine Claude d'Oullins" (Oullins
> Golden Gage) on Prunus Hybrid St. Julien A rootstock.
>
> I suppose in theory I should remove the branch from (apparently) below
> the graft.
> However it does seem to have a good crop of small fruit.
> The main thing is to keep it controlled so that it does not take over
> and overwhelm the grafted greengage.
>
> My inclination is to keep it trimmed back enough to allow the grafted
> variety to prosper, but to leave enough to have the bonus of a different
> variety of fruit.
>
> Thoughts?

On further consideration the small leaves and small fruit are looking far
too vigorous, so I will remove the branches one the fruit has been picked.

I doubt the fruit will be better than those available in the hedgerows at
the moment.