North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Alan, regarding plums, have you any experience with Mount Royal or 
German Prune?

My observation here has been that German Prune although quite small is 
slightly higher in quality than Italian Prune. It also holds to the tree 
very well becoming sweeter. It has much more foliage than Italian and 
seems a little happier in our climate. A 1950 report from Minnesota says 
it is more cold-hardy, comfortable in Zone 5.

Both Mount Royal and German Prune are reputed less susceptible to black 
knot than most.

Stanley is susceptible enough to black knot so that I don't regard it as 
a good choice for the average home grower. On peach soils here it is 
also of poor quality for fresh eating though adequate for preserves. I 
understand that the Geneva Station which bred it has a lot of clay which 
may make a difference. Imperial Gage (Dennistoun's Superb?) is said in 
an old Ontario book to be of poor quality on clay but excellent on sandy 
soil.

I have read that pear psylla as a pest is largely an artifact of 
spraying, and I have seen and heard of several Pyrus communis pear trees 
locally which yield good fruit without spraying. It may take a while for 
the predator complex to become re-established. There are many Kieffer 
pear trees on boulevards  (Vineland fine sandy loam) in north St. 
Catharines, left over from commercial orchards when suburbia came in a 
few decades ago, which seem unbothered by pests.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Alan Haigh wrote:
> I should have mentioned that Williams Pride is quite good for an early D 
> R apple.
>  
> You probably have heard that in general pears have good insect 
> resistance except for psyla which can be managed with multiple oil aps.
> I've harvested perfect Boscs in abandoned orchards and if Seckels avoid 
> scab they can be easy also.  Anjou seems to manufacture scab all by 
> itself.  Korean Giant is probably your best bet for Asian pears and it 
> completely avoids scab and other summer fungus here as do all 
> russetted Asians in my experience. 
>  
> For stone fruit, brown-rot is most problematic for later ripening 
> varieties in general though some of the antique late peaches are 
> somewhat resistant.  I've noticed this with Elberta and Belle of Georgia 
> but Bell is lousy commercially because it's so soft.  Some of the Har 
> series of peaches like Harcrest also resist B R.  Harcrest is a great 
> peach, so is Elberta though customers don't always like its drab color.
>  
> The member who recked Methely is dead-on except that it's a sponge for 
> black-knot but that can't even be controlled with synthetics so you'll 
> just have to cut it out best as you can.  The early Jap plums in general 
> are your best shot as plums go though here in SE New York the drier 
> Euros like Stanley and Italion can make it without fungicide.  They're 
> not as good as the rotters though and Italion can sometimes bear light.