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  • From: "Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] More Japanese plum qestions
  • Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:16:13 -0500

Thank you all for the response to my query about the genealogy of Japanese- type plums.  I now have two more questions I'd like to throw out there.

 

The first one is about Japanese types that don't set fruit well here in the northeast even after a big floral display well attended by various pollinators.   I used to manage a huge estate orchard where a lot of trees were originally ordered from Dave Wilson Nursery including some of the earlier varieties of apriums and pluots.

 

The flowers of these "crosses" (I have some suspicion about their legitimacy) appeared undamaged by our winters but we never managed to enjoy anything more than a handful of fruit even after unusually mild spring weather.   I have also encountered this problem to a lesser extent with Santa Rosa. 

 

At the time I never examined the flowers under a microscope but I theorized that they were damaged by winter temperatures (the ovules?) even though they appeared vital in all ways to the naked eye.   Richard Ashton also suggested winter injury as limiting cropping of some of the pure salicinas on a post here but I don't know if this was also speculative.

 

My next question is about varieties members are growing in similar climates to mine with some success. I've done very well with Methely and Shiro (no surprise there).   Also with Ozark Premier, Burbank, and Fortune- which is very good.

 

Elephant Heart is wonderful when it doesn't weird out around the pit and once it finally starts bearing it has been a reasonably reliable cropper.   But it is susceptible to winter (early spring I think) cambium damage so I've begun painting the trunks white.

 An experimental variety I got from Cummins also appears quite promising.

 

Do any of you have suggestions of varieties to add to the list?  I've abandoned Red Heart as a candidate, by the way.



  • [NAFEX] More Japanese plum qestions, Alan Haigh, 01/01/2008

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