My canker battle with my two year old late santa rosa came to an end yesterday. I wasnt able to contain it so removed the tree to avoid spreading it further. I love plums and was wondering what the best tasting varieties are? Would love to find one that has some immunity to canker if thats even possible?
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I can’t vouch for the quality of these plums, but Auburn University has released a series of plums that are supposed to have pretty good resistance to canker.
If you look at table 1 in the link below you will see that where Santa Rosa suffered 81-100% infection with canker (a score of 5 on their 0-5 scale) their line of plums suffered 0% infection (score of 0).
Crimson, Homeside, and Ozark Premier also scored well in their tests.
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/26/2/213.full.pdf
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Try AU Rubrum. It’s the best plum that I’ve ever grown, and has been disease
free for me, and I might add, so has Santa Rosa.
Thanks for the feedback. How does emerald beaut stack up? Is it a canker magnet as well?
rayrose how does the au rubrum compare to methley? I got a boat load of plums from my methley this year and they rasted awesome. This variety sounds like a winner.
Wow this make me appreciate planting one in 2015. My one and only fruit from it was great to me. As I remember my other choices were not so good Producer and Methley. I know that Methley is disease prone but a good pollinator. If I eliminate the Methley do you have a disease resistant alternative pollinator. Thanks, Bill
In the South, Methley is considered to be a junk plum, not worth growing.
I wasted 5 years on mine, before I got rid of it. I know others that have had the same experience, so I know it wasn’t just me. You must be in a more Northerly climate.to get those results.
I just planted Emerald Beaut, so I can’t comment on it. Maybe Fruitnut
will chime in . He grows it well.
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I have Santa Rosa planted next to mine. Although they are both self
fruitful, they cross pollinate each other, and the fruit set on both trees
is TREMENDOUS. I don’t thin either tree, and still get big plums. I highly recommend this combination.
This is Santa Rosa, when it was in it’s fourth year.
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The AU Rosa looks like it would be a great selection.
The last visit I made to Petals they had several of the AU varieties. Many of these varieties were created during the owners time as a professor at Auburn. Just a little pitch for my college and a great person Dr Powell. Most of what they have is not shown in the online catalog and if you are nearby I would suggest calling ahead to verify your choices.
In a word, yes. (Edit: I was not paying enough attention, it is a knot magnet not a canker magnet.)
Not all the AU plums are disease resistant - AU Roadside has proved to be highly knot-prone for me.
Edit: I should have mentioned above I have little problem with canker on any plum, only cherries have bad canker issues. The most care-free plum I have is probably Lavinia, it never gets any wood diseases and produces a very consistent load of rot-resistant plums.
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Not to belittle your alma mater, nor Dr. Powell, but I have grown
many of these varieties and the only one that I would recommend
is Rubrum. The others did not work for me.
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Good to get that information. I have a cherry plum that is very susceptible to brown rot and was planning on cutting it back. I’ll graft Lavinia.
When I think of plum, canker is not a major concern. It’s black knot that is a killer.
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