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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Plums

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Plums
  • Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:30:55 -0500

At 12:06 PM 8/25/2006, you wrote:
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Deb,
            I haven’t had very good luck with purchased varieties of plums – lots of the fruits seem to split and rot on the tree here in the mountains of NC.  What I’ve started doing is talking to some of the old-time farmers around and asking for sprouts of any “good plums” that they have, and/or buying local plums from farmer’s markers and planting the seeds.  I think local “land races” might be better adapted to local conditions than purchased trees, and it’s sort of in the NAFEX spirit, too.
Same here in KY.  I've given up anticipating any edible fruits from the half-dozen or so European & Japanese hybrid plums I planted when we first started our home orchard, 12 years ago.
I've got a number of native P.angustifolia - Chickasaw plums - that I 'rescued' out of the cowpasture, and just sort of plunked 'em down in a spot in the orchard - originally to use as rootstocks - which I later learned was a mistake, as they sucker like crazy; but, they're very reliable with regard to fruit production - they're not large fruits, but at least they produce a good crop, almost every year.  Yes, they do get brown rot, but not to the extent that it hits the cultivated varieties - there's usually more than I can/will eat out-of-hand, and even curculio damage rarely amounts to anything much more than a little spot, with a bit of clear goo excreted to seal the defect.
Subsequently, I've received scionwood and grafted several copies of the 'Guthrie' selection of P.angustifolia from a fellow NAFEXer, and have collected and grafted selections from local productive Chickasaw plum thickets.





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