Desire some input on quality of these plum varieties

Japanese plums are pretty easy to graft with the right wood- at least here and most seasons. Timing may be important- I now graft them at first signs of growth. It is also important that trees being grafted to are vigorous growers. The growth I get on fully developed healthy trees is amazing. Some of last years grafts are now almost 1" caliber, well branched trees that I have tied down to soon replace the scaffolds the water sprouts I grafted to were born on. I expect a good crop this year, one season after grafting them.

I need to use graft wood at least as thick as a pencil or cheap Bic pen to get that kind of growth.

I wish E. plums were as easy. For me, they are more hit and miss season to season. Last, very few of my grafts took and I have no idea why. Iā€™m not sure of the best timing to graft them, but I think its later than J. plums.

I glad you mentioned it. I had same experience on black ice, I grafted black ice in two seasons, scions were from different sources, none took. I gave it up for a while, I have enough J plum to play with. I donā€™t know what stuck in my head this year, I ordered another black ice scion from burnt ridge, want to try again this year. Will see

Black Ice can crack badly, it did for me. I think it does better in some other climates.

Satsuma has always been average for knots for me, it is similar to all the Japanese plums around it. Overall it is my favorite plum, very reliable and very tasty. Santa Rosa if it pollinates in your climate is also great. I grow Weeping Santa Rosa which pollinates well in my climate whereas regular Santa Rosa does not.

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Thanks Scott

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Iā€™ve also been looking for pollinators for Kubanskaja Kometa and on some Russian and Estonian nurseryā€™s homepages they have been recommending Mara and Skoroplodnaja. On pictures the fruits of Skoroplodnaja looks a lot like Kometa. Recently ordered a Skoroplodnaja for spring delivery so after 3-5 years I probably know how they taste and if it pares up with Kometa. (I need to get 250 years old with all my plans and plants to find out how they turns out;))

In your location at least. Are you sure there are no productive Santa Rosa plum trees in your region? This is an important question for those near you choosing varieties. In my region, I cannot judge a plum varietyā€™s productivity based on one or even several sites. Both E.s and J.s fluctuate rather wildly. What I can identify is crackers, but even they are much affected by how much morning sun and air drainage they get, as are cherries.

I think you posted years ago that Santa Rosa was extremely variable in fruiting - did that continue? Do you think that was due to the weird springs we have? I donā€™t know if SR ends up flowering too early some years.

It is not too early, it is something about the pollination mechanism of which I have no clue as to details. It was consistently bad for many years in several different locations in my yard.

It seems to do well in many places, Iā€™m not sure why it does bad where I am.

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I have heard the same comments about poor fruit set of Santa Rosa from various people (including commercial growers) in different geographic locations, kind of like Flavor Supreme, but to a lesser extent. Obviously it does very well in certain geographies, with certain climatic conditions, but it is not a robust fruit setter.

Which is sometimes a plus.

I wrote this for another topic.

I donā€™t grow the Russian varieties mentioned here, but I have noticed a possible correlation to early blooming and poor fruit set in plums I do grow not related to frost damage- sometimes it takes a few warm days to get pollinators going in my region in NYS. I have also noticed that earlier blooming will get better yields on rare years when early spring is warm and turns cool and wet just as later bloomers are opening their buds.

Commercial apple growers in my region are keenly aware of the affect of cool weather on pollination related only to the absence of pollinator activity. A self fertile variety often needs insect pollination and if it doesnā€™t it may need warm weather for the tree to hold the sterile fruit as is said (and I believe) to be the case with pears.