North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[dwoodard@becon.org]

Richard, can you provide more information on your statement that there are
no pure Prunus salicina plums?

There are some quite cold-hardy P. salicina plums in Canada which I
believe derive from seed obtained from Dr. Woykoff/Woykov or Woiekoff of
Manchuria in the 1930s, the "Ptitsin" series, Ivanovka and others. The
hardiest I've heard of is "Fofonoff", bred by the late Wasyl Fofonoff at
Buchanan, Saskatchewan in zone 1b.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

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> Shiro is a cross of the varieties Robinson, Myrobalan and Wickson. Within
> this cross are the plum species P. salicina, P. simonii, P. cerasifera and
> P. munsoniana.
>
> Methley is a cross of P. salicina and P. cerasifera.
>
> As Diane quoted Santa Rosa contains the species P. salicina, P. simonii
> and P. americana. It is not a "true" P. salicina plum as are Abundance,
> Burbank and Satsuma.
>
> I should add here, that there is no such thing as a truly pure Prunus
> salicina plum as all are hybrids to some degree. The species actually came
> from China and was imported into Japan.
>
> Of all the "true" Japanese plum varieties, Burbank has done the best in
> the East over the years and will usually set a heavy crop in the East and
> needs thinning to obtain the best fruit size and quality. It has some
> problems with fungal diseases in humid climates.
>
> I believe that your are right about temperature being a factor in the
> fruit set of some "Japanese" plums in the East but it may be winter bud
> hardiness more than spring temperatures. Some of the "Japanese" plums are
> known not to be very winter hardy. The P. salicina hybrids with native
> American plum species seem to do better in the East and Southeast,
> generally.
>
> Regards,
> Richard Ashton
> Oak Creek Orchard
> www.oakcreekorchard.com
> bwoodtx@verizon.net