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nafex - [NAFEX] Tasty Japanese hybrid plums for hot and humid areas?

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  • From: Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Tasty Japanese hybrid plums for hot and humid areas?
  • Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:56:54 -0500

To follow up on this question I had asked earlier, I checked out the "plum files" from the NAFEX library and found some good information. The Southern Plum group was active in the early 90's and several reports from that group were in the files.

- One surprise is that the Sprite cherry-plum cross does well in hot and humid climates. After my bad luck with pluots I did not even think about trying that one, but it gets quite a few kudos. I think I will try it, but it may bloom too early for me.

- I did not find any standout recommendations for the AU series plums or the new Georgia plums. AU Producer was liked by some, but on the other hand it got the lowest rating in a taste test in a 1993 article. Rubysweet received the highest score in the taste test. That is the one new AU or Georgia plum I plan to try.

- There were differing opinions on how disease-susceptible Methley is. One person and one study found it bad but another study found it not so bad at all. I may give good old Methley a try in the end, perhaps the samples I have tried were not grown or harvested properly.

- Not many of the southern growers tested the northern hardy plums. Since they are also native hybrids with more disease resistance I would think they were worthy of trial. I did find one good report of Purple Heart from a grower in Mississippi. I am trialing several northern hardy plums right now, and am going to add a few more of them.

- There were many confirmations of how poorly the pure saliciana (Japanese) plums do in the south due to diseases.

Scott




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