Have you ever gotten a crop from any of your Prunus trees? Anything blooming that early for me would be a guaranteed victim of frost, except honeyberries.
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@lmvian … J plums are a long shot here for sure.
I had J plums before (2003-2015)… I dont recall the varieties… but they started blooming mid to late Feb. We got one good crop off them in 13-14 years. 2 or 3 other small crops.
They both eventually died and for several years I gave up on Jplums.
I started 2 EU Plums in 2018… hoping for better luck with them since they bloom a bit later.
One of those got black knot twice then died one spring as it was just leafing out. 1 remains Mount Royal… but it has not fruited yet. This could be the year for first fruit… but I have been thinking that for several years now. EU plums take a while to start bearing.
A couple years back I decided to try J plums again and got some advice here on varieties.
These 2… AU Rosa and Shiro… do bloom a bit later than my earlier varieties… around March 1 or first week of March.
The last two seasons… they bloomed around March 1… set fruit… got hit by a 25F frost mid March and all those tiny plums shriveled and fell off.
Hoping for a better year this year.
PS … i have grafted on to these some later bloomers like superior, alderman and even vic red american plum.
I have 2 jplums but 9 varieties with all I have grafted on. Going to add some AU Cherry plum to them this spring.
Others here have seen AU cherry plum set and keep fruit… when AU Rosa did not.
TNHunter
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That bloom time is about the same for Shiro here…though of course I have a much better chance at not getting that late of a freeze here compared to you.
It happened a few years ago, but that was really abnormal.
Still, its always going to be a risk.
There is a reason no one grows anything but maybe a peach or satsuma here…and the satsuma isn’t safe forever.
I’m waiting to see if the 11 degree morning after our snowstorm did some of those in.
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@lmvian … i added a graft of vic red american plum last year. It grew well but does not look like it will bloom this year.
TNHunter
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Derp! I had overlooked that part of your earlier post. Thanks for being patient!
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Does anyone have a pollinator grafted onto their Sweet Treat Pluerry?
Mine is just finishing bloom…thousands of flowers. I’m not seeing any fruit set yet. Maybe its just too early to be sure. I’ve had sparse fruit with a few dozen in 2022, none in 23 with a late freeze, and literally 3 last year.
I have a weeping Santa Rosa close to it with sparse blooms. I have a branch of Shiro blooming nearby and a few Beauty blooms in the vicinity.
I’m thinking I need to make it more idiot proof for the pollinators. Saw plenty of mason bees on the tree.
I looks to be too late to find Burgundy scion to graft now.
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1… AU Producer (graft)
2… Shiro
3… AU Rosa
AU producer and Shiro opened first blossoms about a week later than AU Rosa.
My South Mtn Everbearing plumcot (graft from last year) opened a few blossoms with Shiro and AU Producer.
I am interested to see when the grafts of later bloomers will actually bloom here (bueaty, superior, alderman, vic red).
TNHunter
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A recent storm blew all the petals off my Blenheim apricot, just leaving the one branch where I grafted a white apricot. Probably La Segerdi Masshad but my labeling wasn’t good so it’s possibly Shaa-Kar-Pareh.
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I got some more pictures this morning.
Halehaven Peach
Asian pear 5 way
Santa Rosa plum
European prune plum
Shishito pepper tree
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In a week or two I’ll take a few photos but it looks like both my Sweet Treat Pluerry and Flavor Grenade Pluot will need some serious thinning.
Maybe even my few Shiro branches.
Do folks here thin smaller fruit like Pluerry as much as the larger fruit?
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