Has anyone heard of the Newman Chickasaw Plum? If so, do you know if the variety still exists and who might have it? God bless.
I know about it from this:
Newman Plum
Mr. Elliott, of Cleveland, writes us that he has “received samples of the ‘Newman Plum’ from D. L. Adair, Esq., of Hawesville, Ky., and that the variety so sent is of a roundish-oval form, about one inch in diameter, clear light red, with a blue bloom, and until the fruit is fully ripe, there are numerous white specks or dots; flesh yellow, sweet, somewhat stringy, yet tender, and adheres to the stone, which is quite large for the size of the fruit. In my earlier days I fre-quently met with wild plums in Ohio, and have often done so in Missouri, that were almost if not quite identical, and in the years 1836 to '45, or thereabouts, they were abundant in the markets of all the Western towns and cities. Mr. Adair claims for it perfect exemption from the curculio - a matter of course of which he should know; but unfortunately for its chances in Ohio, I am disposed to think it would be no more free than any of our wild varieties.”
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Is anyone in zones 7 or 6 growing Chickasaw plums or the Byron or Auburn Chickasaw/Japanese hybrids?
I am mightily intrigued with these disease resistant plums. Are folks growing them north of North Carolina? Do they bloom up there? Do they fruit up there? When do they ripen? How do they taste?
Remind me in winter. I have Toole’s Heirloom and McKibben and Robusto. My other Chickasaws are growing grafts, but it will probably be a couple of years before I really have scion. I would like to try Auburn University Cherry, Au Rosa, and of course, I continue to look for good strains of Chickasaws that may be unnamed but are being passed down through a family or something. God bless.
Hi Marcus, I’m planting a home orchard here in East Point, GA and at my sisters place in Rome. Any way to get a cutting or runner from your Toole’s Heirloom? I’ve planted a number of different stone fruits that I can trade scion wood from this winter.
For sure I can send you scion and maybe a sucker. I’m getting lots of requests for suckers already, and I haven’t had a tone of them come up yet. But scion for sure. Remind me when it’s time. I also have Mc Kibben and Robusto. God bless.
If it’s from a nursery and not a seedling, it’s probably grafted onto a peach root. That’s standard practice with Chickasaw plums because they sucker so bad. It’s a tradeoff though because Chickasaw is so bullet proof and is long lived relative to a peach. It would last a lot longer on a Chickasaw root which could potentially live 20 to 30 years than on peach root which lasts only about ten years. However, if it’s on Chickasaw root, it will sucker eventually and sucker profusely every year and the tree will get a lot larger.
Right on. I’ll put it on my calendar for this winter during pruning season. There seems to be a lot of interest in your plums. Have you tried root any cuttings? Should be easy to propagate them this time of year. I’d be glad to give rooting them a go and will have plenty of space in my seed starting setup in mid-April once the summer crops have been planted out if that is something you are interested in trying. Would be down for rooting the McKibben and Robusto as well.
Marcus, Thank you Probably the sooner the better since the hot weather will be upon us soon. We can try some of the softwood from this year in the humidity tent and last years wood both under humidity and outdoors. My inclination would be to cut 6 to 10-inch sections. When they arrive I’ll cut them into smaller sections and try both methods. Since the trees have already leafed out the cuttings will need to have the bottoms wrapped in a wet paper towel or similar and have the leaves trimmed off. In the past, I have had luck with avocado, fig, mulberry, pear, and kiwi all done this time of year rather than in the fall as most resources online recommend.
OK, Robusto and McKibben aren’t growing vigorously just yet and don’t have that much new growth. They just aren’t as vigorous as Toole’s Heirloom which already has several two foot long water sprouts shooting out of its trunk. Toole’s Heirloom makes a big super vigorous tree as does Mariana. My early assessment on Odom and Guthrie which are still tiny babies is that they are just as vigorous and on a Toole’s Heirloom root will get just as big as Toole’s Heirloom. That’s just a guess from tries that I grafted this spring based on their rate of growth. I’ve been told that the best time to root Mariana is in October, after it’s apical meristem has stopped growing but it’s vascular cambium is still actively making bark tissue for winter hardening.
My Guthrie and Odom have both been very vigorous, with the Guthrie slightly more so. I have summer pruned to keep the height down to about 8 feet. Both of these are on unknown chickasaw plum rootstock.
The only non suckering rootstock that’s likely to have a dwarfing effect on a Chickasaw plum is peach. Of course the wild type Chickasaws are really small in comparison to the improve types so they might have a dwarfing effect on them. God bless.