North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Hi Folks,

One of my in-laws wants to plant some plums and needs some advice.  The
situation is that the plums will be low-spray, or possibly no spray at all.
I've seen the site and believe the disease pressure will be very low.  It is
in the downtown of a city of 30,000.  Lots of concrete, and, as as far as I
could tell, very few fruit trees around.  So I'm hopeful he can raise some
plums without too much trouble from insects.  Without looking it up, I
believe the area only gets 30-35 inches of rain per year.   Zone 6.

I want to recommend some high quality cultivars, but they need to have some
resistance to disease, specifically brown rot.  I know about the AU series
of plums, and have some myself (that haven't fruited yet) but I've heard too
many negative comments about quality to recommend them.  Plus I don't think
he needs something immune to brown rot, just something not hyper sensitive
to it.

Some ideas:

French Petite- I've heard Ed, Lon, and others sing praises for this plum,
does anyone raise this plum without spray?

Superior- I have this plum ordered for next spring and have it recommended
by S. Smith and Ossi.  Can either of you guys comment on its susceptiblity
to brown rot?

Any other suggestions?  We can go with Europeans or Jap/Amer hybrids.  He
has room for about four trees.

Thanks in advance,
Mark
KS