I can’t wait for some pics!
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What an amazing tree. Do you plan on distributing any rootsuckers or scion wood? Personally I’d rather have a sucker but I’d love to have this one for my heirloom plum collection either way. I love how your family has kept it going.
Ridgeland Chickasaw plum as it looked on April 15th, 2024. I got this strain of Chickasaw plum from an orchardist in Bueford SC. He bought it as a seedling from a little girl selling seedlings at an open air market in Ridgeland SC. The girl said that she collected the plum seeds from a tree with very good plums growing in a roadside plum thicket near Ridgeland. The strain is named Ridgeland on account of its connection to the Ridgelands, SC area.
To be honest, the tree did not look like it was going to bloom much this year, and them the bloom buds seemed to appear out of nowhere in late winter. The tree has a bumper crop. I’ve already thinned fruit once and may end up having to then again to maintain quality and to prevent limbs from breaking.
This tree made its first real crop last year. The plums are about the size of a medium egg, peach shape with a nipple on the bottom. They are longer than they are wide. The color is pale yellow with a pink plush on one side. The flesh is yellow. The flavor is very sweet, fruity with an underlying flavor the reminds me a bit of mango. The tree blooms early, but the fruit ripens in early to mid-June. So, by Chickasaw plum standards it’s a mid to late season plum.
The tree suckers readily, and while it will probably gets bigger than a wild type chickasaw plums, its acting like it won’t get as big as many chickasaw cultivars.
Two of the photos are of how the tree looked on April 15th. The third photo is of it with ripe fruit from last year to remind folks of how this strain looks when ripe.
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I bought a couple of bare root seedlings (the seller used commercial seed stock, probably Sheffield) and they’re so whippy they can hardly stand on their own. I subordinated one down to a lateral and might have to do the same to another - you can see that I had to hold it up for the pic. Is this typical? The one on the right has had nothing done to it other than trimming the taproot to a suitable size for the container.
Anyone know anything about the Caddo Chief cultivar? For family reasons, I’d love to get my hands on it, if it still exists.
From what I can gather from reputable sources online, it was introduced into the nursery trade by GW Stoner from a wild population in Caddo Parish, LA and was apparently quite popular in Texas/Louisiana around the turn of the century. The 1897 American Pomological Society catalog describes it as having moderately large, very good quality fruit that ripens very early and is suitable for dessert or market and recommends it for the region. Another source is less enthusiastic, stating that the flesh is good but the pit is large. All sources seem to agree that it was red, perhaps brilliantly so. I have found records indicating that there were orchards containing hundreds of these trees in the late 1800s in the Shreveport area.
I’m going to put a feeler into any native plant circles I can turn up in that area next time I head up that way, but this thread seems to be the closest thing to a Chickasaw plum club I’m likely to find! I suspect that the cultivar has been lost to time, but I’m hoping some crusty old gardener knows where to find some wild ones (which, if I’m honest, have probably also been lost to development).
What I found in my research efforts is that there were over 300 named cultivars of these things in the early 1800s. As best as I can tell, they have all been lost. If the strains continue at all, they are persisting as un-named local trees or are continuing on under a new name. If you can find any of these historic strains and are able to link it to a historic variety name with any level of certainty, it would be a huge contribution to horticulture.
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CMToole, after a few years aw
ay, I am so pleased to see you have kept this thread going , along with your enthusiasm for sharing all things Heirloom Chickasaw!
You sent me cuttings of mckibben, dot piazza, robusto, marriana, and “sprite or delight” in early 2020 that all got grafted onto my Guthrie, bought from just fruit and Exotics, and planted in Spring 2016. It also had Odom grafted onto it early on, sourced from the nursery with Native in its name(?).
I am in Baton rouge, and have been eating plums hand over fist for a week, and have sought you out to update you on your cuttings, and me on your heirloom Chickasaw progress
I took this today. I trained the tree early to be open Center
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Premature post…
The wall behind it is 7 ft tall, it’s probably 15 - 18 tall and 25 wide
Mariana had three grafts that quickly tried to take over the world. I had to cut two away entirely, and the remaining requires summer trimming. The Pencil Thin cutting is now 3-4 inch diameter! I was just about ready to cut it out all together, but today I had one of the half dozen or so of its first fruit. The same size as a guthrie, but blood red and very sweet. I am going to try to air layer it.
Casual efforts at rooting cuttings have failed on this, and all the varieties listed, except odom, which has rooted on numerous occasions
I have three dot Piazza grafts, though one is clearly different than the others. The pair are making plums this year that haven’t quite ripened yet. About the size of guthrie, trending toward purple skin. The odd one has not made plums yet. Moderate vegetative growth
Sprite or Delight makes a slightly smaller and more rounded Plum, when compared to guthrie, that looks more like a cherry. But hard to say, the worms loved it in this it’s first productive year, and the few that were produced spoiled. It has moderate vegetative growth
McKibben has had slowed to moderate growth and has yet to make a plum.
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Robusto is the third most vigorous grower behind Mariana and odom, and the plums are large and attractive, and would make me happy were it my only plum, but it is the least flavorful
I have to be consistent in my summer pruning of Mariana and Odom. Guthrie is a relatively small tree, I worry about it toppling
Each year, up to a third of my Odom get worms and ripen early and inconsistently. But the remaining are the latest to ripen and end the season nicely. Good big fruit
Guthrie is by far my favorite, very sweet and peachy. It overwhelmingly has the least worms.
I throw my pits into a pot of loose soil during grazing season, and have transplanted dozens of the seedlings and several Odom rooted cuttings at some family property near a little dot of Zone 5B in Western Appalachian Virginia. Several have survived a handful of winters, and some of the Odom have done more than languish, but I have seen only one of the Odom bloom, and it was way way too early. Those original Odom have since died.
This spring, I planted 100 American plum on that property. “The Yankee Chickasaw”
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The Sprite / Delight is a Sprite. I decided that I didn’t like the plums of my Dot Piazza, so I removed it. Let me know what you think of it when it ripens fruit. Thanks.
Marcus Toole
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I just had a fully ripened, pc- free, fantastically delicious robusto. I no longer have a least favorite
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The last Robusto plums to ripen are always much better than the first ones.
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It may be because the tree is channeling more sugars into fewer plums as plums ripen, get picked or fall off.
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One of the best fruit tree origin stories I’ve ever read on this forum that I’ve followed about eight years.
So a person would need Chickasaw rootstock to graft the “Algonquin” plum?
Bravo Joan for taking care of this fabulous legacy tree. I would happily offer to purchase a scion or two if you ever wanted to spread it to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
@coolmantoole What would be a good rootstock for Algonquin that would match its vigor and size?
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I am about to go out of town for 5 days, and the Guthrie will be done by then, but the dot Piazza are only just beginning to ripen. I should have a few to report on.
I have caught up on 4 years of this thread, and I have a case of plant lust that I haven’t felt for some time. Lots of great new varieties to seek out and give a home too.
My Guthrie is full, but I have some Odom cuttings that I could use as rootstock. Does it Thicket heavily?
I look forward to some shameless begging for cuttings come winter , and intend generous sharing of what are always ample cuttings from the varieties I have as well.
I’m still learning the rest of you by name and location, but I believe I read at least one of you is also in South louisiana. I am curious if some of the varieties may require more chill hours then we get in 8b/9a.
Cheers!
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Hi, I’ve gotten where I sell or trade scion cuttings. That helps to keep the requests manageable. I don’t know what Odom does on its own root since both my Odom and Guthrie were grafted onto Toole’s Heirloom. I’ve grafted over both of them. Neither were ever particularly productive for me, and the Odom just states like super watered down cool aid to me. I grafted it over to Ruby Sweet. Guthrie was beginning to have serious problems with leaf scald every year. I cut it down completely and grafted Segundo into a Toole’s Heirloom sucker growing out of the base of it.
While I like the flavor of Guthrie better, Sonny’s Yellow is a bigger, more productive plum, and the flavor is really good. Ridgeland is a yellow and pink plum. It’s an order of magnitude better tasting than any other chickasaw cultivar I’ve experienced. It also makes by far the biggest plum of them all, and if anything it wants to over-crop. I’ve had to thin fruit both seasons mine produced, and this year I still ended up with a broken branch. The only down side to it is that the fruit is kind of drab looking. Thanks.
Marcus Toole
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Do you spray your plums or does Ridgeland do well no-spray?
And have any successfully air layered or rooted from cuttings? That would be huge
We got 6 in of rain during my 5 days away, then two more inches through yesterday, so it’s no surprise that the first ripening Dot Piazza plums were not the best texture and the taste both unremarkable and watered down. We’ve now had a couple of dry days and I have a dozen or so left on the branch waiting to ripen.
The last of the Guthrie’s, eaten at the same time, while watered down, still had pleasant taste.
I am determined to wage war on the PC next spring. Despite much reading, I don’t recall a consensus on best product for someone not afraid of Better Living Through chemistry. The new sevin? In one thread, I believe Marcus had grown disenchanted with malathione, but I don’t recall your current go to.
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You will need to control curculio as with any plum. It is disease resistant, and when on its own root is likely peach stem borer resistant as are most chickasaw cultivars. I’m experimenting with using it as rootstock for some of my Byron Series scion. So far, it’s working out OK. Using Ridgeland as a rootstock may be a bit of a waist since its own fruit is so good. But I do want to keep the area around my original tree free of suckers which I may have trouble distinguishing from it. Thanks.
Marcus
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I use a mix of Seven and malathion applied at dusk. What worked this year was three applications with the first starting with the husk fall of the first strain. Obviously, I don’t spray blooming trees. In low chill years where many strains don’t stop blooming soon enough, I spray the ground under and around the tree at dusk. That works pretty well. The bugs are on or in the ground during the day. So, most of them come in contact with the pesticide as they emerge out of the ground. My experience so far is if you get the emerging adults in the season, you don’t have to keep applying.
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