North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

I take it the in-laws are in Kansas?  The best way to grow plums in my
experience is to be in California, although I know that may present
difficulties for most... with the warm dry summers, they grow pretty much
disease free, and I never had pests to deal with, either.  Now, apples are a
different story... anyway, in-laws location might be useful.  It's not just
the zone that matters...

I hope they grow some nice varieties.  I always found plum growing
rewarding.

Happy New Year,

~ Stephen

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Angermayer
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 7:27 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] Plum thoughts please

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

_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list 
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web
sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have
permission!

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions.  
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used
to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/

Internal Virus Database is out of date.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com 
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.0/1864 - Release Date: 12/25/2008
9:40 AM