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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

John Bunker wrote: 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. 

 

I contacted our southern plum expert, David Ulmer and complained that I had two choices of plums, those that grew well but bloomed too early (Japanese) and those that bloom later but refused to grow (Europeans).  He asked if I had tried the Jap/Am hybrids, which I had not.  He said they bloom later, that he has 7 of them grafted on one tree and they do well.  He sent me scions, it was really getting too late but I got 2 vars to take on an Am seedling.  I'll probably just leave some branches of the rootstock for my pollinator.  We'll also be mowing down the numerous suckers for years to come.  David kept saying that myrobalan is the rootstock of choice for the hybrids, but I didn't have any. 

    Something to keep in mind is that the Jap plums in blooming too early seem to avoid the worst of the curculio.  Some say they are immune to curculio, but I don't really think that is true.  I have certainly eaten perfectly good plums with curculio scars on them many years ago (I think that was Ozark Premier, am waiting on a purchased tree to bloom to verify).  We have had a lot of curculio damage on our existing AU vars, the chickens get a lot of them.  But the pure Am plums seem to be more badly damaged by PC.  Maybe if sprayed with Surround they would do better. 

    I met some Europ plums that seemed to do well over in the Tenn Valley and in town, but on our clay soil they will hardly grow.  I keep trying to pep them up, only time will tell. 

    Donna