Does anyone have any direct experience with the Black Ruby plum from the USDA breeding program in Byron GA? Are they as good and disease resistant as reported? Thanks. I may be interested in scion as well, but I want to hear what people’s experiences with it have been before I go there. Thanks.
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Wow. Looks like I need to get familiar with it. Sounds perfect for here.
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Fallowing
I do have a large graft of Black Ruby on my Santa Rosa and also an airlayer of B.R. but have not had fruit from it yet. I cant remember the member on here that sent it to me but if it comes to me ill tag them.
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Thanks.
I’m receiving a Black Ruby plum today from Isons.
I’ll take a cutting with my initial pruning and graft it to another tree.
If I’m lucky I can get a few fruit next year on the grafts while I wait for the dedicated tree to come into bearing.
I used to grow it years ago. I got the tree from Johnson’s
in Ellijay Ga. It grew well, but was a sparse producer of black
skinned yellow meat plums that were very tasty. The tree died
after about 5 years. Hope you guys have better luck with it
than I did.
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I grafted several Black Ruby’s last year and kept two and sold the rest. One is in the front yard on an N.C. McKibben rootstock. That one grew eight ft in one season, but I cut it way back in an effort to force it into a bit more spreading growth habit. The other is high grafted into a Ms. Bessie. That one did not grow as big in one season, but I like the shape better. Both are a little better than belly button high right now. They might get big enough to bloom next year. The Ruby sweet that I grafted into my mature Odom bloomed some this year. Un fortunately we had a lot of wet cool and windy weather while it was blooming which may well mean that it didn’t get pollinated. We shall see. Both of the Segundo’s I grafted bloomed. Their bloom time was super early. I ended up grafting over the smaller of the two, on Mariana, to Ruby Queen. The larger one on Toole’s Heirloom is huge for its age and has set some plumes, so I may get to taste a few this season.
This year I’ve grafted Ruby Queen, Maripossa, Gulf Blaze, Gulf Ruby, Spring Sattin and Gulf beauty. All are grafted into several different rootstocks. I grafted Ruby Queens grafted onto N.C. McKibben, Mariana, Mariana with a Segundo interstem and Wild type Munson Plum. I grafted Maripossa onto N.C. McKibben, a mature Drag Queen, Toole’s Heirloom, Ms. Bessie, and Mariana. I grafted Spring Satin into Toole’s Heirloom, Ridgeland, and Ms. Bessie. I grafted Gulf Ruby into Toole’s Heirloom, and Wild Type Munson plum. I grafted Guld Blaze into Toole’s Heirloom with a Ruby Sweet interstem, and a Rubusto Seedling with a Ruby Sweet interstem, Mariana and Ms. Bessie. Gulf Beauty is grafted onto Toole’s Heirloom and wild type Munson plum. We shall see what happens.
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I like your thinking…instead of having single variety trees, share with them all. Spread the risk like insurance in case you lose a tree or two, you don’t lose any of the varieties.
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The biggest reason for multiple plum varieties is that pollination compatibility and bloom time varies a lot and is unpredictable even in the same tree from year to year. That’s especially true here in SE Georgia where we are so close to the minimum chilling requirements of many varieties. Some of the higher chill varieties bloomed earlier than usual this year because of the cool winter. You gust never know who’s going to pollenizer who. Another reason is because weather systems can sometime prevent pollination of one group of trees but allow pollination of earlier or later blooming ones. Both last year and this year, cold, wet, windy weather passed through during the bloom time of the mid-season bloomers. Earlier and late bloomers will likely have to provide most of the production. Around here, plums are easier to sell than any other fruit, so it makes sense for me to focus on them anyway. Thanks.
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The top photo is Ruby Sweet beginning to bloom some last weekend. It’s grafted over a mature Odom chickasaw plum which was grafted onto Toole’s Heirloom. The second photo is of Mariposa grafts on Drag Queen. I grafted this tree this past Saturday when it became clear that Drag Queen didn’t get enough chilling hours to bloom properly here. If it didn’t get enough chilling hours after this cool winter, it will never get enough in Statesboro, GA.
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