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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Hardy Prunus, was Re: Staking of immature fruit trees

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  • From: Caren Kirk <quirky@videotron.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Hardy Prunus, was Re: Staking of immature fruit trees
  • Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:30:26 -0500

Claude and Doug,

I know sometimes nurseries are very lax about naming. Here around the Montreal region, there are many nurseries selling a "Mirabelle" plum, the cultivar itself not being specified. Most of the nurseries list it as Ag Can Z4, so suitable for my region.

In late summer we have a lot of farmer's markets and supermarkets selling baskets of small juicy yellow plums flushed with orange red from Ontario. I always assumed they are a Mirabelle type, or they could be Reine Claudes I suppose. Fully ripe, I find them a particularly tasty treat. Hopefully my tree will produce similar fruit.

I am a definite newbie but interested in learning. So thanks for the interesting discussion.

Caren
St. Jerome, QC
----- Original Message ----- From: "Claude Jolicoeur" <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Hardy Prunus, was Re: Staking of immature fruit trees


Doug,
Yes my Mirabelle is of quite good quality, and I would say more than just
"suitable" for fresh eating when well ripe. The racoons are also very found
of it so I usually have to harvest a bit before full maturity. It ripens
about a week later than Mont-Royal.

Next year I intend to take close-up pictures of the flowers and count the
stamens - I read in Plums of NY that P.insititia have a different number of
stamens than P.communis, so hopefully this test should confirm if it is
really a Mirabelle. If you want, I could sent you a picture off list - I
have a nice one with Mirabelle and Blue Damas side by side to compare sizes.

Claude


At 01:55 2009-11-17, you wrote:
Claude, is your Mirabelle of decent quality, and suitable for fresh eating?

I would be surprised if some of the settlers of New France had not
planted seeds of Mirabelles from France. I would also have expected them
to try grafted trees from France at some point.

Stanley is a shade hardier than Mount Royal (though liable to black
knot, and from my limited observation not very good quality on peach
soils at least for fresh eating) and if I remember rightly it came from
a cross between Prune D'Agen and Grand Duke; (I forget the direction)
i.e. old European plums.

But also, around 1985 I observed in an old plum orchard in the Niagara
Peninsula, several trees with small, round, rather bland fruits of
various colours including yellow, which I deduced were sprouts from
rootstocks of perhaps St. Julien, where the tops of commercial cultivars
had died. And (for the benefit of the newbies), damsons, Mirabelles, and
the St. Julien rootstocks are subgroups of Prunus insititia of Europe.

Doug Woodard

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