Would a Long John, Mirabelle (Nancy), and an Opal do ok with deep AM shade and afternoon sun? Before everyone says No— I realize it’s not ideal, but is it possible? Has anyone had this experience and can attest to fruit quality?
They’d be on Krymsk and St Julian, caldera/berm setup, good drainage, lots of mulch.
Note: This is my first time growing Euro plums and these rootstocks, but I have a collection of Japanese plums/pluots/pluerries on Citation, Nemaguard, Lovell etc. Summer temps go up to 115F so full sun isn’t really an option anywhere in my yard.
I had a Nancy mirabelle in part-shade (dappled sun most of the day with direct sun in the morning and late afternoon) in Davis. It took 5 years to start blooming and never set more than a handful of fruit before I moved away. Whether that was because they take a while to start bearing or the lack of sun I can’t say.
Where in SoCal are you located? Euro plums do perfectly fine in full sun in the Central Valley and it gets just as hot there.
I’m in zone 10a, north of Los Angeles, in an unfortunate wind tunnel (Santa Anas).
Is it true that Euros are more sensitive to weather conditions than japanese plums?
Shade might actually help there. Plums can get very sweet and set fruit well even in shady locations and you don’t have the disease pressure as those of us in the humid region. One that doesn’t do well for me here in partial shade is Green Gage- it doesn’t reliably sweeten up, but I doubt that would be a problem in S. Cal.
Euros probably have an advantage over Japanese plums when it comes to late freezes. Euros usually bloom later, so they sometimes dodge the bullet that might take down early blooming varieties.
After growing them in slightly up-state NY for the last 30 years at many sites, I am confident that J. plums are not just more vulnerable to spring frosts than Euros, but also to late winter freezes long before they show any green- but it varies to some degree from variety to variety.
Last year, our big freeze event occured in early Feb, after a very warm Dec and Jan., but all plums bloomed profusely, the problem was fruit set- Elephant Heart and Earli-magic set no fruit at all, but Satsuma, Reema, Burgundy Queen and, of course Shiro set light crops- the Euros all set much larger crops and required some thinning, although not as much as a normal good year.
The problem was apparently frozen embryos. The male parts of a flower are tougher and probably hold less water.
It took me several years to figure this out as I’ve never seen it discussed in literature I’ve read, but I feel quite certain of my anecdotal observations on this, including cutting open flower buds.
That seems like a plausible description of what happened here last year as well. It was almost a complete fail for Japanese plums and Pluots and the European ones were closer to normal.
Splash Pluot did the best of the first category. Normally it oversets and last year it set probably just right without needing much thinning. But even very reliable varieties like Beauty and Shiro didn’t set.
Oh that’s good! I was concerned about the sugars in the shade.
It’s true without the humidity we don’t have the same volume of disease issues— but it’s a bit of a trade off, with the trees bursting into flames several months of the year
Way Out West, having shade part of the day is in your favor. Living in the high & dry of Spokane, WA, I’d prefer shade in heat of afternoon. If you mulch well & soak your young trees once a week as they establish roots the first several years, I think European plums will play well.
I planted Ersinger Europlum - in full sun - a few years back & love it.
