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  • From: John Bunker <john.p.bunker@gmail.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: john.p.bunker@gmail.com
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Asian/American Plums
  • Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:17:33 -0500

I agree with Jim that most of what has been written in books (and there hasn't been much) about hybrid plum pollination is inaccurate or just copied from someone else.  However, there is some good stuff out there, including FA Waugh's Plums and Plum Culture, written in 1901.  I have read and re-read many times the Saskatchewan article to which Melissa refers.  I consider it to be the best attempt yet at an intelligent explanation of plum pollination.  

We have about 40 hybrid plum trees  on our farm in central Maine, including most - but not all- of the common ones and several that are more rare.  We grow them in clusters of 3-12 trees, with trees spaced about 3-6 feet apart.  Until we planted straight species (P. americana) we got fruit, but never had great crops.  Out best years have all been since the species have begun to flower.

This is still anecdotal evidence however.  This year in central Maine, many growers had huge crops, seemingly no matter what they did or didn't do.  And of course, in many areas there is the issue of plum curculio which may (or may not) play a key role in cropping.  

Some factors that may effect pollination include:
Unlike P. domestica and a number of other Prunus species, hybrids are thought to be not self-fruitful.  
Hybrid plums are obviously hybrids and as hybrids, they  have reduced amounts of viable pollen.  (Think mules.)
Hybrid plum varieties have differing flowering periods from one another, not always overlapping.
The timing of  what viable male pollen there is in hybrid plums does not necessarily correlate with female receptivity in neighboring trees. 
There are several different species combinations that fall under the banner of "hybrid plum".  Some of those combinations are known, some guessed at, some unknown.  Some even exhibit "European" type characteristics and/or susceptibilities. 
Superior is a plum with an odd history.  While the literature generally calls it: Burbank (P. salicina) x Kaga (P. americana x P. simonii), in the old catalogs (30+ years ago) I have seen Superior referred to as both a hybrid and a European. 

Unfortunately, breeders and nurseries pretty much gave up on hybrid plums decades ago, for what ever reason.  As such, a good deal of what's floating around may or may not even be correctly identified.  The best source of a variety is a grower who knows the fruit and has bearing trees.  That's one of the beauties of grafting your own.  If possible, I always "go to the tree" when I want to add to the collection.

With best regards,
John Bunker

Fedco
www.fedcoseeds.com 
PO Box 520
Waterville ME 04903
207-873-7333
fax: 207-872-8317



 




On Nov 17, 2008, at 4:30 PM, Melissa Kacalanos wrote:

    We Americans tend to believe that anything
written in a book is truth whereas a published work
is no more than someone's (sometimes uneducated)
opinion.  Don't believe everything you read.

What's worse, this thing about hybrid plum pollination
is from something I read on the internet:
It's by some academics at the University of
Saskatchewan, where I've never even been, so how do I
know Saskatchewan even exists?

Despite the anecdotal evidence from people on this
list who say their hybrid plums get pollinated just
fine, I'll probably play it safe and plant a pure
native plum anyway.

Perhaps since funding for hybrid plum pollination
studies in Saskatchewan is meager, the evidence in
this paper is somewhat anecdotal too, although it does
seem significant:

"Our recommendation regarding the necessity of  wild
plum pollinizers has been 
reinforced by our observations over time and in
several locations. 
 Many years ago our attention was drawn to a Pembina
plum tree growing at the residence 
of  Mr. and Mrs. Eric O. Bert.  The fruit yields on
this specimen were outstanding compared to 
other specimens of the same cultivar growing in the
city.  We assumed that there was something 
special about this tree and it was propagated.  The
young Pembina trees and trees of many other 
plum cultivars were planted in the university orchard
but their fruit yields were poor.  Dandy and 
Bounty had been planted as pollinizers in this
orchard. 
 In another location a 'multi-graft' plum tree
consisting of four hybrid plum cultivars and 
one Prunus salicina cultivar grafted together had been
producing poor to fair crops at the 
residence of one of the authors.  Assuming that these
cultivars were cross pollinating, the seeds 
from this tree were saved and grown into mature trees.
The objective was to find a superior 
selection among the seedlings.  When these seedlings
began to bear fruit, it was obvious that the 
pollen parent to at least 95% of them was a wild plum
and, therefore, a superior selection was not 
found.  Also, it was significant that this large group
of seedlings bore few fruit even though most 
of them were 75% wild.  There was no completely wild
plum near them.  
 Later it was discovered that a wild plum was growing
in a neighbour's yard approximately 
100 meters away from the original 'multi-graft' plum
tree. This was the pollen parent.  
 As a test of the of the pollinizing efficiency of
wild plum, a young specimen of Prunus 
nigra, wild plum, was planted near the 'multi-graft'
tree.  The year that this young wild plum tree 
began to flower marked the beginning of outstanding
fruit yields on the 'multi-graft' tree. 
 Having made the above observations, the Bert
residence was revisited to inspect the 
Pembina tree and to look for a wild plum that we
suspected was growing nearby.  There was a 
wild plum growing in the same yard.  It had not been
noticed on the first visit years ago. "

Melissa






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