No bitter taste, these were selected for annual productivity, size, processing quality
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Yum!
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@JesseinMaine, what are the approximate dimensions of that beach plum shrub? I’m curious how vigorous these are in Maine. I can’t quite tell from your image but it appears to be pretty tall. Do you think it would be easy to keep it limited to 4 feet in height without too much hassle?
what rootstock is it on? I imagine that has a noticeable effect. Ive seen some on their own roots (seedlings from Fedco I believe) that are quite mature not far from me, and theyre round shrubs about 6’ high and 8’ wide. @JesseinMaine, your multigraft looks more like how imagine my beach plums will look someday. I grafted them to american plum
Mine are around 7’ tall x 10’ wide. I have pruned them as standards (defined trunk and open base) to promote airflow. On the ones I’ve top worked or frame worked over to other varieties I prune out growth below the grafts which give those a bit of a gangly look
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These are all on beach plum roots
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Here is a good example of an older P Americana that I manage for my neighbor. It came from eastern Wa back in 1983 when my neighbor moved here. I studied it for several years after he let me help manage it, trying to understand how to improve production. You can see that I have tied the majority of the scaffolds down. The older tree has produced a number of suckers which I have thinned out to give everyone adequate sun exposure. Last fall I created a horse manure compost around the thicket to conserve moisture and provide nutrients. Once I trimmed off the majority of thorns managing the trees was much easier. This year we could see a remarkable increase in plums produced. The fruit is very similar but slightly smaller although quite sweeter than the Stanley plum. Each year I save the seeds to plant for my next generation thicket nearby on a stream bed. Its growth character is very similar to the beech plums many describe herein. My neighbor said the old western cedar tree stump was here when he came. It’s been fun working with such an established thicket!
Dennis
Kent, wa
Typical fruits
Looking east
Looking westward
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Grafts of Jersey Gem and wild local scion. Blooming at the same time so hope to get good cross pollination. Grafted to a Santa Rosa plum.
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Sweet! Mine are just about to pop in the next couple of days.
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Nice job! I added a number of native plums this year in hopes of increasing my cross pollination. So far it seems to be paying off as I have a fair number of new ones setting fruit this year to taste test. It looks like a good crop coming. Most of mine are past petal fall with Wild Goose being my latest one just beginning to lose petals. Hoping this year it sets fruit. My mason bees have been very busy
Dennis
Kent, Wa
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4/2 Jersey Gem graft seems to be a “take” on Myro rootstock in my beach plum row. Much thanks to @danzeb for providing the scionwood! I tried a bunch of these side grafts on my earlier season BP grafting - so far so good.
4/20 Premier cleft graft pushing already.
I’ve been much more attentive to weather and especially temperature during my earlier grafting this year.
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FYI in case anyone is interested, here’s a link to the NAFEX article on stonefruit side grafting (someone posted this here in another thread which is how I found it)
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