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["h black" <hblack1925@fastmail.fm>]

The only plums I've had any luck with are the "Wild Goose" which I think is an early cross with p angustifolia, and the Angustifolia itself.  We had huge crops on Japanes plums for a couple of years, but then black knot and frosts to the point where we removed them. 

    Our Ozark Premier grows well, but hardly ever has fruit due to frost. 

    For what it's worth, the P Angustifolias that I have show varying degrees of suckering.  Some have a forest as some of you described, and others are rather sparing.  Genetic I suppose.  I've used the sprouts for grafting and do seem to transplant and survive quite well. 

    Hector Black zone 6 middle TN

    Wishing I could make it to Clemson but the farmer's market is an every weekl thing and with no blueberries, we struggling to get some income from other stuff.

----- Original Message -----

From: Lucky Pittman

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 11:13 AM

Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Plum problems in The South

At 11:27 AM 8/9/2007, Donna wrote:

    You sent me a graft of "Guthrie" which died, but the rootstock lived.
I'm pretty sure I put it with the pots I saved from the drought.  So that
will be Chickasaw. 

Yep, if I sent you a Guthrie, it was on KY-native P.angustifolia

I take it if you'd just planted some seeds from
'Guthrie' you'd have the genes and probably a lot of the same behavior as
the parent.  I'm assuming it did well enough for someone else to name it and
pass it on to you. 

Paul Zmoda sent me scions of Guthrie several years ago.  I've since seen it offered at a couple of Southern nurseries, like Just Fruits & Exotics:
GUTHRIE An improved Chickasaw plum that doesn't sucker and is highly disease resistant. This new variety is yellow-skinned with a tangy, sweet yellow flesh. Fruit is 1 1/2 inches across and makes a fabulous jelly. A good choice for growers who have problems with pollination. Ripens mid-June. Zones 8-9.
I've seen at least one webpage that alluded to the possibility that Guthrie *might* be a hybrid, with some Japanese plum ancestry.
I've got a couple of small 'Guthrie' plants on their own roots - I had some dormant-collected scionwood, 2-3 years back, that was beginning to bloom in the fridge, and I just stuck them in the ground under the shade of the kiwi arbor.   Seems like Paul told me that it's not difficult to root.

Were these other varieties other species?  And what
about the beach plums you had?  They'd be seedlings I think.

I'm down to one beach plum, and yes, they were seedlings from OIKOS.  Next door neighbors put in some sort of mounded septic system a year or two back and in the process, significantly altered drainage/seepage, such that one of my beach plums - the more dwarf and most productive one - has declined, and when I looked at it a week or so ago, it's completely dead.

    I don't know what species my native trees are.  I collected them locally
and had assumed they were P. americana. 

You know, other than some row-run seedlings I bought from Henry Fields a few years back and lined out in the nursery bed, I've never even seen P.americana.  Every wild plum I've ever encountered was P.angustifolia.

    Are you losing the trees, or losing the fruit and if so, to what?  Late
frosts, curculio, brown rot or all three?

I think the Euro plums I put on P.angustifolia are still alive, but after many years of no blossoms(like the Green Gage(purchased from Miller Nurseries) that still hasn't blossomed significantly or set any fruit after 12 years in-ground), I just let the Chickasaw shoots take over.
Late frosts? No, just the regular winter/spring frosts are usually enough to ensure no fruit on the remaining Japanese hybrids(wait - those were from TyTy, so who know what they really are?!)
On the rare occasions when the pluots &/or plums have managed to set a few fruits, brown rot has taken virtually all of them. 
I won't say I've never had brown rot on any of the Chickasaws, but it's not a huge problem, and I don't know that I've ever seen it on the beach plums.

Lucky

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