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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] beginner plum panic

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  • From: "Brungardt, Sam (MPCA)" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] beginner plum panic
  • Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 13:18:19 -0500

Melissa, is your Toka planted somewhere where a building might be reflecting heat onto it?  There should be a reason why it is blooming so early; normally it would bloom pretty much with the other plums you have.  – Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn. (USDA Zone 4b)

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Melissa Kacalanos
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 1:12 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] beginner plum panic

 

I planted 4 plums last year: the hybrids Toka and La Crescent, and a Prunus americana and a P. maritima. Also, my neighbor has an ornamental purple-leaf plum that bloomed for quite a while last spring. I figured, with this many plums, pollination would be fine. But today, my Toka has just about blossomed, while all the other plums in the neighborhood are still sensibly mostly dormant. Also, my daffodils just popped open today, so we're still pretty early in the season.

Does this mean my Toka is doomed to be an ornamental? I thought P. americana was supposed to be a good pollinator for it, but it has a lot of catching up to do for its bloom time to overlap with Toka's. Of course, I don't even know if it's planning to bloom this year at all, but it isn't breaking dormancy nearly as fast as Toka, which doesn't bode well for future years.

Should I be panicking? Should I graft a branch of some other early-blooming plum onto Toka? Should I be hoping for plum-daffodil hybrids?

Melissa

 




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