ISO: Luther Burbank full plum list

Hi all
I’m having a hard time looking for a full list of L.Burbank plums. Any useful info would be much appreciated.

2 Likes

This article has many (all?) of them:

7 Likes

Hi Scott
Have you by any chance come across a book: THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK

BY U. P. HEDRICK

ASSISTED BY

R. WELLINGTON O. M. TAYLOR W. H. ALDERMAN M. J. DORSEY

Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1910

I’m trying to find the right name for L. Burbank’s plum which is sold here in Ukraine under a (fake?) name “Berbank Gigant” (yes, 2 misspells :smile:). Now, I know there is nothing in existance with a name like that.
There are plums “Burbank” and “Giant” that Luther introduced in late 19-th century, but they are different from Berbabk Gigant that’s sold here. There is another plum that Starkbros sells called Blue Giant which looks very similar to what they sell here, but I can’t find anymore info on Blue Giant Blue Giant Plum Tree - Stark Bro’s

Maybe Blue Giant is listed in the above mentioned book?

Here is a local link with some photos:

2 Likes

Plums of New York is available for download at various places. I have a copy and I checked and there is no Blue Giant in it.

My guess is that name just means a large plum with some connection to Burbank, the name in the US will be nothing to do with “giant”. The plum in the picture could be Santa Rosa which is a larger Burbank plum. It might be a little too red in the flesh though. I would look through pictures of Burbanks plums (and perhaps some progeny of them) to see if there is a match. You can also look at ripening time, taste, etc. Santa Rosa for example has a totally unique flavor which makes it easily identifiable.

1 Like

Thank you for that Scott, I really appreciate your help.
I’ll have this “so called” Berbank Gigant fruit in a week or two and see what is it resembles Santa Rosa, although practically all nurseries sell both, the Santa Rosa and Berbank Gigant.
I’m really keen on getting things straight here and prove the whole local market wrong.

4 Likes

Discussion esp. disagreements need to be cordial. Please do not throw insults at each other.

If either one of you would like to back up your claims about this breeder’s accomplishments (or not) with his scientific work/paper, that would be helpful to all of us to know.

2 Likes

Come now, let’s please be cordial. This is a awesome forum, with a lot of friendly active participation, let’s please keep it that way.

Thanks :+1:

2 Likes

For those of you with a molecular bent, here’s an interesting new open access analysis of extant Luther Burbank Plums that reveals interesting insights into their ancestry:

Spaeth et al (2024) Relatedness of Luther Burbank’s Plum (Prunus sp.) Introductions Based on Genotyping by Sequencing. Hortscience 59(6):873-880.

The work demonstrates that Burbank appears to have started with foundational hybrids between Prunus salicina and P. simonii that he used for further breeding work with P. americana, P. cerasifera, P. domestica and P. rivularis.

1 Like