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Hi Deb,
I have several plums but only one has fruited yet,
so take what I say with a grain of salt. Notwithstanding, I have three of
the Auburn varieties (Japanese) in the ground. I planted them because of
their reputed high disease resistance. As you and I are in the same
zone, I don't think hardiness will be a problem for you. However, there
are a couple of concerns I might mention. Japanese
plums can bloom so early that, I'm not sure if they will crop regularly in
zone 5. I had another Japanese type bloom around March 15th this year and
we got 25F weather while in bloom. No fruit. Another thing I
don't like is that most are clingstone. When I ordered them I didn't think
it would be a big deal, but after getting fruit from a clingstone this year, I
realized you positively cannot remove the meat from the pit. This is
important to me because I never eat fruit without a knife, having an aversion to
worms, particularly half a worm.
So I've decided to plant some European prune types
as well. They are very freestone, hardy, and bloom later. Two that
I've chosen are "Early Italian" and "President". The first is
self-pollinating, the latter requires a pollinator. "Early Italian" and
"Italian" will both pollinate "President." Both Italian plums are supposed
to be fairly disease resistant. President is listed as immune to black
knot. The Italian (syn-Fellenburg) are sold as fresh fruit in
Europe.
In terms of the Auburn varieties, AU Rosa, AU
Roadside, and AU Rubrum are all very resistant to black knot, brown rot, canker,
leaf and fruit spot. All are self-pollinating and as a general rule
Japanese plum trees are smaller and more precocious than Europeans.
Mark Angermayer
Zone 5 Kansas
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