My AU plum (Producer I think) has always had a poor set as well. I’ve grafted multiple varieties to it now. If it still has trouble, I’ll likely graft it over completely.
It’s a bit early to say for sure, but after getting down to 19.7 and 16.5F during the first week of April, I don’t think I’ll have set on any JPlums other than Toka. It just finished blooming a few days ago, later than everything else. It looks like there were a few stray flowers on several neighboring trees to pollinate it.
I also see what could be one plum on Delight (none on it’s companion Sprite), and it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a stray plum on a few of the larger trees.
Apricots seem to have hit pretty bad, not just the fruit, but the trees. I think I may have lost the Early Blush and the Monique. On the EB, the only part with leaves is a (small) Robada graft, but without the rest of the tree, it is probably toast. I just checked Raintree and Cummins to see if they still have K1 rootstocks, but they are both out. Between those two apricots and a few others I lost (Pallas peach, White Gold cherry, Jubileum sour cherry, etc), I actually have some open spots. I could put apples or pears there, but I think I have enough of those planted already.
On the positive, the Montrose came through OK and I even see a few apricots (half a dozen on a large tree) on it. I’m not sure if they will stick, but it would be a nice bonus. Apples and pears seem fine so far, including some of last year’s grafts. I think I may get a reasonable crop of peaches and my first real crop of Euro plums too.
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I have a large mature Shiro tree here a bit north of Chicago. Every year she blooms copiously, and rarely sets fruit, never more than half a dozen on this big tree. Over the years I have had on my half-acre Toka, Alderrman, Purple Heart, and Santa Rosa, and all of them open their blooms just as hers are fading. All the sources say that Toka and Santa Rosa are preferred pollenizers for Shiro. Not for me, they aren’t.
Allen,
i planted my Shiro in 2012. It fruited a few in 2013 but all dropped.
In 2014, it set a few more and I had my first crop. I really did not know what pollinated it since the Satsuma next door had no bloom.
In 2015, it bloomed like crazy. There were a few Satsuma that bloomed at the same time. I had several pounds of Shiro.
This year, Shiro bloomed heavily again. All Satsuma buds were killed by frost. I am convinced my Shiro will set fruit. I just do not know what cross pollinated it.
I’ll be lucky if I get a handful of Whitegold cherries. Virtually all of my stonefruit flowers got zapped by the late freeze too.
My Shiro fruits regularly, and the pollinator is either Methley or Hollywood - I guess Methley.
I am not sure what pollinated mine. Two out of three years of fruit setting, Satsuma was not blooming. No other flowering plums near by that I am aware of.
I was closely examining the plums yesterday (while grafting in the cold misting rain) and noticed a few tiny fruit on several of the trees. I think there may be quite a bit on the Laroda (later flowering than many, especially the Lavina). There could be enough that I need to thin on a few of the branches (others seem to have none at all). I also noticed a pretty heavy set on the Sweet Treat pluery. So it looks like the only crop that was almost totally destroyed was the apricots and early pluots (regrettably Nadia bloomed with or before them).
For me Shiro is self fruitful.When nothing else does or has very little,this one produces much. Brady
That is my assumption, too.
Will American plums pollinate Japanese plums?
I have a J. plum Superior, It is covered with flowers but does not set that many fruits, only handful. I think it is pollination issue, what is the best pollinator for Superior plum??
For what i’ve read…Prunus americana (American plums) are great pollinators for these hybrids (Superior/Alderman/Toka/etc).
I’m right there with you.
I haven’t found anything that looks remotely promising on 4 J. Plum trees and I’m feeling less and less positive about the peaches. Most tress have absolutely nothing that looks like fruit forming, and the few things I thought were peaches two weeks ago, didn’t look so promising last weekend.
I also have a total loss on Asian pears, a near total loss on the Seckel, and a only handful of of potential fruit on the Bartlett. I don’t really care about those as pears are my least loved fruit. (!!)
My apples are looking pretty bad too. Some tress have what looks like nothing,while others have a handful of fruit.
Hopefully the “thinning phenomenon” will kick in…that’s when you think you’ve thinned all the fruit off a certain tree, and then the following week, you remove a ton more fruit that was hiding somewhere, and you do it all again the week after that. (At least that’s how my thinning usually goes!)
Bart, that’s too bad.
My apples did okay. I have blossoms on Gingergold (B.9); Red Gravenstein (B.9); Myers Royal Limbertwig (B.9); Roxbury Russet (G.30); and Goldrush (EMLA.111).
Mostly just apples and berries for me this year probably.
Wow, thats pretty bad Bart. Matt and I are further north but got a lot less hit.
I am randomly discovering both surprising gains and losses as I poke around my orchard. My sour cherry is late-blooming and it set a ton as usual, but the sweets all have a very light load (10-20% of the usual). Most pears set well but a few asians did not set well at all, probably the earlier-blooming ones. The Montrose apricot also seems to be a good one for cold, it didn’t bloom late but it still saved a higher percentage of its crop. Montrose, Colorado gets tone of late freezes so I’m sure it was selected for resistance to that.
Don’t you have a white apricot that is late blooming? How did that do?
I think i’m going to have a nice crop of Satsuma finally.
Zard was looking very good last I checked, but it needs another look to see if much dropped. I was in fact spraying it last evening but by the time I got to it there was so little light left I could not see. A few trees later I wedged my cellphone in my shirt pocket with the flash light on to see what I was doing. Yet another good use for a smartphone 
I knew you had one late white. Why isn’t that variety available commercially? It sounds like it has a lot of good qualities for a cot.
I now have Moniqui and i added Twocot (Starks) this year. My Moniqui has a half dozen cots on it, but its only a second year in the ground tree. Twocot is just sending out leaves now.
Sounds like there’s a lot of positive results from Shiro this year. In fact it’s about the only J. plum recommended for my area.
But mine got frosted out this year. Plus it seems to be a black knot magnet. Anyone else see this? I’ll probably remove this tree.