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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Toka plum

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  • From: "Richard Wagner" <rewagner@centurytel.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Toka plum
  • Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:24:42 -0600

I suspect that the name 'Bubblegum' was chosen because it was supposed to taste somewhat like a cherry. Cherry is the flavoring used in bubblegum.

Black ice is reported to have been chosen as being descriptive, black on the outside and white on the inside.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Melissa Kacalanos" <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:22 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Toka plum


Ernest, I'm strongly suspecting that your "Toka" isn't a Toka at all, but a mislabeled cherry-plum, with that awful-tasting Western sandcherry in its ancestry. The nursery must have been wrong about either the "Toka" or the "Cherry Plum" part of the label (or both parts I suppose.) The fact that your tree is still alive in the cold, plus the fact that the plums taste bad, both point to the conclusion that it's a cherry-plum.

Maybe I just don't want anyone bad-mouthing 'Toka' since I put a lot of thought into choosing this cultivar myself last year, and I'm hoping the fruit are good.

I've been reading about some new cherry-plums that supposedly taste better than the old cultivars, after some more generations of breeding. Lydecker is a new cultivar that's hardy to zone 3b. In taste tests, fresh tree-ripe Lydecker plums were preferred to Asian plums that had been picked underripe in California, warehoused for a while, shipped across the country, warehoused some more, and then fed to taste-testers.

Lydecker is being marketed under the name 'Blackice' which doesn't sound much better than 'Bubblegum' to me. Who thinks of these marketing names?

There are so many interesting plums out there, I wish I had more room to grow them. I might have to learn how to graft a few more varieties onto the few trees I have.






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