North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard J.Ossolinski <osso@acadia.net>]

Mark,
Perhaps you'd be interested in Bob Andersen's (Cornell) comments, especially given your zone 5 location.
Richard
Gouldsboro, ME Zone 5

European Plums – The range of ripening times, colors, shapes and flavors that are available within these European-type plums will amaze farm market customers.  They'll definitely add the garnish to make your fruit display attractive, and they’re much more than pretty.  They are healthy.  Tufts University mammalian nutrition research shows that plums are one of the best fruits to improve your memory.  They also contain phenols similar to tart cherries and Janpanese-type plums.  Additionally they are the hardiest stone fruit crop available, so you can grow them where peaches, Japanese plums and sweet cherries might fail.  Why are most ENE-USA fruit growers “stuck in the marketing mud” with only Stanley and Fellenberg (Italian Prune) trees planted?  Could it be lack of imagination to see the potential that plum  diversification would add to their fruit offerings?  Could it be that nurseries that serve the NE-USA are not tuned in to the fact that you need different varieties than growers in W-USA who are trying to ship ‘Fellenberg’, ‘French Improved’ and ‘Moyer’ fruit to eastern chain-stores as green-ripe fruit?  Could it be that scientists like me have not educated the nurseries and growers about what is available?  Yes, to all three of these.  This is part of why I accepted the opportunity to present this talk. But before I list them I must emphasize that cross pollination is required for some blue plums and is advantageous to most.  So, plant a mixture of varieties.  They will keep your pickers hopping to stay on top of which ones are ready, but they will certainly crop regularly and be popular for both fresh and cooking to make German prune cake and great plum sauces, and jams.  We use cut halves of fresh blue plums on the BBQ with fish and pork.  They’re great! Here are some winners!
 
Blue European-type varieties -
          ‘Ersinger’ is much better quality than ‘Earliblue’ and should be your 1<x-tad-smaller>st</x-tad-smaller> blue plum for late July.
 
    ‘Valerie’ and ‘Vanette’ from Vineland, Ontario and “NY 81PL”, a new test selection from Geneva that International Plant Management, Inc./Summit Sales has available for trial, are all worthy of planting for early August. 
 
‘Voyageur’ and  ‘Castleton™’ are both better croppers and higher quality than ‘Early Fellenberg’ for the last half of August. I believe that you should plant both of them because Castleton™ is slightly later and is darker color so they’ll compliment each other on the farm-stand with the contrast between powder blue of Voyageur and dark violet-blue of Castleton™.
 
Vineland test selection ‘V 72511’ is outstanding for either farm-stand or wholesale packing for the Labor Day time-slot.  It will soon be patented and available to USA nurseries. ‘Seneca’ ripens at the same time as V 72511 but is not firm enough to ship.  However it is one of the very best quality plums for farm-stands to use to attract customers back for more plums during the rest of September and early October.
 
‘Longjohn’ is novel in its long torpedo-like, shape and larger than everything that I’ve suggested for earlier ripening plums.  ‘Longjohn’ can be packed and shipped successfully to wholesale plum markets.  It is proving in E-NY that it can provide good income for apple packers who can set up a simple dry line to sort and pack these plums.
 
‘NY 9™’ should completely replace Stanley.  This new, dual-purpose, plum processes extremely well in comparison to Stanley and Fellenberg and, its pits never fragment and are always freestone.
 
    ‘Valor’ ripens just after Stanley and is larger and better tasting.  It continues to grow in its market share in Western Europe, where good blue plums are treasured.  It can be packed and shipped successfully to wholesale markets.
 
    ‘Empress’ is the largest blue plum in this list and, like  Longjohn and Valor, it can be packed and shipped successfully by NE-USA producers.  It makes two and one-half inch fruit size.
By: Robert L. “Bob” Andersen, Professor of Horticulture, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, N.Y.S.A.E.S., Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456
On Jun 29, 2006, at 4:42 PM, Mark or Helen Angermayer wrote:

> I am considering ordering a Fellenberg or perhaps an Early Italian plum for
> next year.  Does anyone have any experience with these that would help me
> make a decision?  Is the only difference the date of ripening, or are there
> significant differences in taste(fresh eating), freestoneness, or disease
> resistance?  Which is bigger or firmer?  Any comments about your experience
> with them would be welcome.
>
> Also, any opinions on "President" plum?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Angermayer
> Zone 5b Kansas
>
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