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  • From: Matt Demmon <mdemmon@gmail.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] beginner plum panic
  • Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 15:27:10 -0400

Melissa, you don't note where you're located, but here in Michigan it's been so warm so early that many things are not lined up this year like they normally would be. IE, honeyberries and some pears are blooming 2 1/2 weeks earlier than normal, while some pears seem like they'll only be a week early, and apples don't know yet. Some wildflower species are up way way early, while others are holding out for the 'normal' time despite the weather. Usually species seem to bloom about the same time as others of that species no matter what the weather, but hybrid plums might have widely varying genes and respond to weather differently. Different chilling hours, etc. Some plants here seem to be able to use the early warm weather, while others say "I don't care how warm it is, it's april and it aint time to wake up yet"

Also, the native plums at least seem to bloom before they leaf out, so if they're too young to bloom, they might not be doing anything yet. So I'd say give it a couple years and see. Toka is really delicious in my opinion. Worth a try. I just planted La Crescent, Ptitsin #9, Alderman, and one other hybrid along with some species seedling, in addition to the native P. americana seedlings I've had for a couple years, and can't wait to see what happens!

-matt
se MI z5

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com> wrote:
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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-matt demmon



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