In know it is somewhat off topic, but if there is anyone interested in Purple Leaf Plum (Thundercloud?) scionwood I am doing trimming today. I would be happy to save and prep some for you.
Here is what my tree looks like
Here is what my tree looks like
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Yeah, Iâm definitely hoping to grow these out to assess the fruit. I may end up grafting them all onto one rootstock together, due to space limitations.
Someone told me once that seedlings from pluots, and other interspecifics, may turn out to be sterile, but time will tell. I do have one seedling from âSweet Treatâ pluerry that is fruiting for the first time this year, so that is a promising sign!
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I grew a number of purple leaf plum seedlings out and ended up culling all but one on account of color saturation. The one I kept has very pigmented leaves, pink flowers and nearly black stems (until they start to turn gray from bark formation their second year and beyond. This year it was finally large enough to flower heavily and it looks like it is setting fruit. I canât wait to assess the quality.
I expect my seedling would be able to rival âThundercloudâ in terms of aesthetics so perhaps it could be used as a companion tree for âThundercloudâ to provide cross pollination for better fruit set while maintaining the uniform look of having a group of purple leaf trees together.
Granted the fruit from mine are likely to be just average quality, but âThundercloudâ wasnât selected for fruit quality either.
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Most of these purple leaf plums were bred to be sterile. They didnât quite achieve that and the Krauter Versuvius plums planted here in the Bay Area still produce a few fruits. These are bred to be landscape trees for sidewalks and parking lots. They donât want fruits dropping and messing up the area.
However there are some cherry plums (aka P. Cerasifera) that are bred for fruit quality from Eastern Europe. I grafted Naidyonisch from ARS GRIN and hopefully I can sample it this year. The best one I tried so far was a chance seedling growing near a fence at Andyâs orchard. It was super-productive and good tasting. I should hunt it down for scions, if it wasnât cut down already.
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I just noticed that one of the local âThundercloudâ trees is loaded with weirdly deformed fruitlets. Iâve never looked closely at the trees this soon after flowering, but I guess the mechanism of sterility in this cultivar is setting a lot of these and then aborting them later?
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Our Purple Leaf Plum produces a lot of 1" dark red fruits. They are edible but not great so most of them end up littering the ground around the tree. As a result, we have a few seedlings around the tree - none of which have purple leaves. I think you have going to have to do A LOT of tries to get a plum tree with good fruit AND purple leaves.
Is it possible that those green âseedlingsâ near the tree are rootstock suckers? If you pull on the small one, does a whole root structure come with it?
Maybe, They are about 8â from the tree and they are also about 8â tall.
Typically the roots extend further than the dripline of the tree canopy. Some plum rootstocks send up lots of suckers.
Its the fact that they all have green leaves that makes me think it likely they could be root suckers.
That is plum pocket fungus. You need to remove all infected fruits immediately, and treat for disease. It will spread to your other plums. I lost a bunch of Au-Rosa and Black Ice plums to it this year before I could identify it.
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These are street trees in my neighborhood, not my own trees. I donât grow any plums or cherry plums myself. But thatâs good to know! I wonder if these trees have been infected for years and that is one of the reasons they rarely produce fruit.
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@MikeJennings @JohannsGarden Just wanted to check in to see how your plum seedlings are going? Did they fruit yet? Are any keepers?
My deep purple leaf seedling only ripened a couple fruits last year, but looks like it may do a little better this year. The size and flavor was pretty mid range for a cherry plum which would be below average for select fruiting cultivars. It was pleasant though. Probably a good tree for where looks are a top priority and should be useful for breeding purposes too.
I know this is an old photo, but it is such a perfect example of Plum Pocket in hi-def. It is far better than any photo I have seen without a pay wall.
Not only can you see the classic distortion in the fruit, you can see the actual fungus at the tip of the fruit and in the leaves.
If you are totally cool about sharing your photos, you might consider renaming those photos to contain something about Plum Pocket. When I was trying to identify it in my trees, nothing with that kind of definition and representation was available.
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Iâd be happy to have them used and shared by anyone who finds them useful. Consider them released to the public domain! The good news is your post on here that quotes the photo should eventually come up in search results, but if you know of some better/more useful way to share them, feel free to do so.