North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

One additional factor:

I've been told that Kahinta (a hybrid plum I believe) takes 8 years to 
come into full bearing, or to bear at all (my recollection is not clear 
over 20 years or so).

Also, about 20 years ago a local Niagara Peninsula fruit grower told me 
that Vanier (named by Vineland, Ottawa-bred, reportedly Japanese/Prunus 
salicina, reportedly a Burbank seedling, I don't know whether 
open-pollinated or not) while it starts bearing around 4 years or so, 
does not come into full bearing (in relation to tree size) until about 8 
years old. I think this would be on Myrobalan rootstock.

I suspect that these days a lot of people draw conclusions before a tree 
is 8 years old, when perhaps they should wait for maybe 10 years.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



John Bunker wrote:
> 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
> trees@fedcoseeds.com <mailto:trees@fedcoseeds.com>
> 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:

<http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plantsci/dom_fruit/articles/plums.pdf>