I love your observations- never really noticed that difference between gages and prune- what I do notice is that gages are more prone to cracking. Oullins sometimes cracks to uselessness. Hope it’s good this year so it can fill in the early slot right after Shiro, as I recall. It’s an impressive early plum when it’s right.
I also may have some new varieties to try that I grafted from Plumhill farm’s collection.
Fact is, I’m so over-extended that a partial crop is more a blessing than a full one.
Bob,
I fairly sure some of your Lavina wood was sent to me about a year ago.Mine is fruiting for the first time and was early blooming too.
Here is what the fruit looks like right now.
Could this be Laroda?I have a small Laroda tree that has a fruit or two growing and will compare.
Scott,are there any big visual differences between the Plums when ripe,like the color of skin or flesh? Brady
I don’t think I would put my plum behavior to mean much, it may have bloomed early in past years. I only noticed it was later this year because it was the only one that didn’t get wiped out in the freeze. Also while they are round later, they may have been pointed earlier and I’m just not remembering.
The fruit are easy to tell apart, Lavina has very strongly colored yellow flesh while Laroda is like Santa Rosa, a light yellow color. Lavina takes a long time to color up on the outside, and it may not even get all the way there - they can be yellow splotched with red at harvest. Laroda has that puckery skin of SR, its a flavor like no other plums and if you have ever had a SR it will be obvious. It colors up well before ripe to purple.
If Laroda should be early and Lavina should be late, maybe I do have them reversed. I planted them within a few days of each other. I’ll take a look for any labels which may still be left (doubtful). I normally go by written (digital) records, but in this case, it’s possible that I had a written plan and didn’t update it after something changed.
One other thing to look for is if there are any rootstock suckers. One is on Citation (red leaf?) and the other is on Penta, If that fails, then I suppose I need to wait for fruit to see. I’ve never knowingly had Santa Rosa, but will post pictures.
Sorry about the potential mix-up Brady. I hope it isn’t mixed up, as I’ve sent out quite a bit of scions of those two varieties. Both of the trees were strong growers, which made plenty of extra wood. Many of the people I sent it to got both, which isn’t as bad (switch the labels). But it really hurts for those like you that already had the other variety. Once we straighten out what is what, I can send out any needed budwood this summer and/or scionwood next spring.
It’s fine if the fruit is Laroda,but I don’t want to send any scions out if we don’t know for sure,as Lavina seems to be one sought for lately.
I appreciate your generosity.
Rob’s picture looks somewhat like the shape of mine.Where did yours come from,Rob,a scion or a purchased tree? Brady
Things are looking good so far in Maine, even some peach buds opening for the first time in two years. Nice full bloom in my oldest plum patch, and it seems to have been hanging on for awhile now…first petals are falling on this gusty day…There’s been a pair of Baltimore Orioles feeding on the nectar of the bloom, doing some acrobatic maneuvers to reach the blossoms at the tips and undersides of the branches, they seem to prefer Toka, just like me😊
I planted 2 more Toka this year…have heard nothing but good things about them. The stone fruit seem to be doing really good so far. My orchard is in full bloom as well. I even noticed that some apricots actually seem to have set fruit! That would be a first for me.
There were no tags on one of the trees, but the one I think of as Laroda had two Laroda tags sitting on the ground by the trunk (the DWN cardboard one held on by string and the plastic one that breaks when it gets brittle and the tree gets big), so I may not have a mis-ID. Or, maybe one of them came misnamed by the nursery (Lavina from Cummins and Laroda from Sanhedrin). Either way, I’ll hopefully know soon when they fruit.
When I went out there, I checked some of the grafts. Two Euro grafts onto Asian plums from last spring have fruit (Early Laxton and President).
I suppose this is a way for people to hedge their bets- even if the Asian plums are frozen out, a few branches could still be productive…
It’s also impressive because I don’t think the Euro plums grafted onto Euro plum trees last year are carrying any fruit.
The only thing that disappointed me this year was the asian plums. Half the buds didn’t even swell. I still had lots of flowers, but the fruit set was poor. Most of the fruitlets turned yellow and dropped. I could still get all I need, depending on losses from here.
The heavy set on nectarines and peaches is a welcome change. It’s been a few years since I’ve had to spend any significant amount of time thinning them. Even the peach buds that started swelling in Januray seem to be unscathed. It’s interesting that peaches buds might be hardier than asian plums in this respect.
I was out thinning today, in preparation for spraying. I prefer to not be in the trees for a while after spraying, so I figured I should thin first.
It’s nice, but it really made me recognize that I’ve let the tree get too tall. I took this picture while standing on top of a 6’ ladder. Donut peaches are harder to thin and spending so much time on the ladder (and still not reaching some), gave me a new picking idea. When the time comes to harvest them, I’ll use a saw to cut the top 5-6’ off (could be 8-10’ by that point). That would still leave the tree 12’ tall. Then I can pick them off the branch while on the ground…
The cold slightly over-thinned Satsuma and Geo Pride, leaving just a few on Toka and Flavor Grenade (really hoping those make it). And none at all on Flavor Supreme, Nadia, and Mariposa. But the rest are pretty full, like this example.
Thinning some of my Euro plums will be a bit painful, as they are clumped together near the ends of the branches. This is the first time I’ve had enough Euros to thin, but from what I gather online 2-4" is the usual spacing.
The timing is right, but the peaches might get bruised when they hit the ground. [quote=“BobVance, post:275, topic:9536”]
Thinning some of my Euro plums will be a bit painful
[/quote]Mine set heavy too. Looks like I might finally get enough to stockpile dried prunes.
Bob, you’ve seen my trees- peaches work better in a quite horizontal construction. I used to rely primarily on pruning to outward, more horizontal shoots, but now I accomplish the first 5’ of horizontal growth of a scaffold by tying branches down, although it is more time consuming. Once you let a peach tree get too tall it is often impossible to bring it down in height.
One thing this year demonstrated to me again is that bloom is no guarantee of fruit set. At some sites J.plum blossoms were destroyed entirely and the buds are still black reminders of Febs lows. But often it appears only the ovaries were destroyed and a full bloom didn’t lead to a full crop, even though the bees were quite satisfied with the pollen the damaged blossoms produced.
This was a year when dawn to dusk sun was a disadvantage to the earliest blooming species because the buds of these trees were slightly further along than partially shaded locations when our severely abbreviated winter finally arrived.
Bob,
My 3 Euro set for the first time this year and set well, too. Castleton sets in bunches, some in clusters of 6-8 plums. Very painful to thin, indeed. I may ignore the 2-4" per fruit rule and follow the 2" loosely.
I will thin by size instead, keeping large fruit that are next to one another and removing smaller ones in each cluster.
Do Shiro plums have a pointed end when they were young? I could not remember since the tree did not set fruit last year.
I know when matured they are round yellow fruit. Right now, my Frankentree Shiro plum bears a lot of plums from various varieties, all with pointed ends.
The timing is right, but the peaches might get bruised when they hit the ground. [quote=“BobVance, post:275, topic:9536”]