Alan, I have also found Satsuma to be one of the few reliable
"California asian" plums -- the ones popular in California. It took
about five years to get a good set but it has overset the last two
years. It is also a great tasting plum and its only defect is it is a
bit on the small side. Wickson finally had an OK set this year for
the first time, and the tree is in its 7th year. Howard Miracle,
Santa Rosa, and pluots have low set and they are 7-8 years old.
Elephant Heart proved highly prone to shothole, along with Howard
Miracle, and those two have mostly been topworked. Elephant Heart has
yet to set fruit but it did get pruned to near-nothing one year when
it was too diseased. Shiro, Superior, and Redheart are also very
reliable for me, the former two undoubtedly due to having a majority
of non-saliciana genes.
Scott
Z6/7 Maryland
[NAFEX] A tale of 2 Elephant Hearts,
Scott Smith, 05/28/2009