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

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  • From: Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Hardy Prunus, was Re: Staking of immature fruit trees
  • Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:24:12 -0500



Doug Woodard wrote:
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.

Then
Claude Jolicoeur wrote:

I am not so sure about the hardiness of Stanley, as I had one and it died.
I can't guarantee it's the cold that killed it however. But my feeling is
that Mont-Royal is quite hardier. Your memory is right about the genealogy
of Stanley - Grand Duke is an old English plum mainly used for cooking - is
it grown in Ontario?
Claude

I suspect that Claude is right. I never tried a Stanley here because I had no reason to believe they were hardy enough.
I did try Mount Royal and it was a wonderful tree for about 15 years. Doug, I think you are underestimating just how hardy Mount Royal really is. I have a min-max thermometer that, back then, was wired right on the Mount Royal tree. In its first 5 or 6 years that thermometer recorded 40 below zero two different years. Also it was in an exposed location with nothing to block the west or north wind that blows across a frozen lake.
That tree produced a good crop almost every year. I seem to recall it had a sparse crop after those 2 coldest winters. Finally,the tree started getting cracked, then dead, bark on the upward facing surfaces of the main scaffold limbs. This did not start after a very cold winter. I always wondered what caused that. It's been dead for about 5 years now.

Steve in the Adirondacks (usually zone 4a)




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