What is the reason you used Satsuma as an interstem? My plum expertise (if I have any) is with Asian plums and pluots, Adara and Hollywood are often used as interstems but I’ve never heard about Satsuma.
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Here are photos of the European plum that I would like help identifying. It was found in Ukiah, CA about 70 miles north of my home by a long-time fruit grower. He named it Mark Albert’s Golden Prune. Though it can dry like a prune, since it is round and doesn’t look like a prune plum I asked Mark to call it Golden Plum but he never did. Unfortunately, Mark died this year so I’m trying to find the possible true identity. The original tree was probably 40 or 50 years old when Mark found it so it was probably planted at least 60 or 70 years ago.
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That’s pretty. Is it freestone?
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Semi freestone. One side of the stone comes free while the other side must be pried out.
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I don’t think an interstem is need to graft a plum on a Marianna 2624. It is a precocious rootstock. I have them for my Euro plums.
I don’t know your CA soil so I don’t know what rootstock will perform best. What does Dave Wilson recommend?
Too bad that one of a good members @Stan has not posted for several months. Stan is in CA and grows a lot of stone fruit esp. Euro plums and apricots. I like reading his assessments of his fruit. Hope he will return.
@mayhaw9999 I wanted a plum with a nice complex taste and based on my research, satsuma was the only grafted variety that was available locally that had great reviews from people. Shiro may have been a better choice for grafting but the variety didn’t have enough rave reviews for its actual fruits. In retrospect, after having tasted a couple of satsumas from the tree this year and seeing the leaves seem to easily curl after heavy rains and cool weather, I would probably pick something else. I would give it another 2-3 season tho to be more conclusive. May I also mention the mirabelle graft on the satsuma also appears to be growing vigorously and has fruited this year, albeit just one single piece. Delicious tho.
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What are the European characteristics?Because at first glance,the fruit looks more Asian.
The people at Felix Gillet Institute have found Plum and other trees,around the area,of North San Juan,where they are at.Most of what I’ve heard are Asian or possibly a hybrid,with an American or Cherry Plum.
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I have great sandy loam and any rootstock seems to do well. It is not a rootstock problem for me. Dave Wilson grafts most stone fruit on Citation that many of us do not like for various reasons. I went to their site to see what they were grafting European plums on. They don’t divulge that information. Maybe if I tried to do a commercial tree order I could find out. However, they do not sell any European plums except prunes on their commercial site and only have Bavay’s Gage for retail nursery sales.
All of the Europeans that I have lost were grafted onto Myro 29C or myrobalan seedling. That said, many commercial nurseries do sell gages on myrobalan seedling and 29C. I know that Marianna 2624 is a good rootstock for apricots but didn’t know it was good for European plums. Thanks for the information.
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I take Euro plums on Marianna 2624 over Myro any day. I have my plums fruited in 3 years while others have their plums on Myro that take over 5 years to fruit. ( I also bend branches which help).
Marianna 2624 tends to lean, though. Keep an eye on that. I planted four, two lean, the other two not, I did not know about the leaning tendency until there were in ground for 3 years.
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No, this is European. I grow 20+ varieties of Asian plums. All you have to do is look at the leaves to tell it is not Asian. The fruit is also decidedly different. This has the texture of a gage plum and flavor much like the gages that I have managed to fruit before they died. Similar to the Purple Gage that I still have.
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Have you had any suckering yet?
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A few but not as many as the ones from Juliet bush cherry.
My trees are about 8 years old.
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Satsuma and Shiro are not favorites of our family though Shiro sets heavy crops and makes a good plum juice. My tree died suddenly two years ago probably of bacterial canker. I will not replace it.
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Yes, it does seem much more like a gage than a prune.
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Did you ever measure shiro’s Brix? If not, was it atleast medium sweet as far as you can taste?
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No. I seem not to ever test Brix. I should get in the habit of doing so. Shiro is a fairly sweet plum and quite juicy. A lot of people like it and it has stood the test of time. How many of the old plums are no longer propagated?
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Pretty plum
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Shiro has sour and bitter skin. I don’t remember the brix of mine, maybe 13 or 14. Relatively low by my reckoning. I think I add sugar to the juice to get up to 18 or 20 before I use it to flavor soda.
The skin is also quite sour and a little bitter. Best flavor and best texture don’t align in timing for me but I do like the flavor.
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So many of the Asians have sour/bitter skin. Santa Rosa has a very sour skin to my taste but it is my wife’s favorite.
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This coming year, I will re-evaluate everything. In the beginning I don’t have a lot of fruit trees, now I do and can graft, so I can experiment.
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