The last two years my AU Rosa has bloomed and set fruit by early to mid March…
Then last year we had two nights 25F, 26F and all those fruit aborted and fell off.
This spring a low of 29F… and most of them turned black and fell off. Rats.
I have grafted onto my AU Rosa… AU Producer, spring satin plumcot, south mtn plumcot, bueaty.
I may just replace a couple more branches with AU cherry plum next spring. Love the cherry plums… and it sounds like they may be a bit more frost heardy too.
I haven’t tasted AU Cherry yet, but it does have the most fragrant and sweetest smelling flowers of all my plums. It seems as frost hardy as my others (besides AU Rosa) as far as I can tell. It’s a strong grower too and easy to graft.
I air-layered my AU Cherry a few years ago so it is growing on its root system. The root system probably has no impact on its frost tolerance.
My Spring Satin has some fruit but not as many as the AU Cherry.
Im really impressed with the fruit set on Catherine Bunnell. It survived a trip to 26f two weeks apart during bloom and early fruiting. It is supposedly early ripening. This will be its first year fruiting for me. Best fruit set of all my plums except Waneta ( still flowering).
What do you know about this variety? This forum is basically the only place I can find it.
Most of my info is from this forum as well. I got it from fruitwood. The only insight i have is that it has a longbloom period that starts a week later than most of my other japanese plums and lasts almost 3 weeks. It sets well and the fruit are quite cold hardy.
Impressive fruit set.
This is a J x A hybrid, correct? What do you have pollinating it?
Im not sure what it is hybrid with, but it doesnt have many american traits like leaf shape or flower color. Maybe chickasaw.
@SoMtHomestead … I am impressed with the later and longer bloom of your Waneta.
I bet it will bloom with Alderman in there somewhere.
I found a guy last night doing a first fruit taste test on a Waneta graft… he ate a few… but was not all that impressed with the flavor.
I may add a graft of waneta next spring… a so so plum is better than no plum.
A few details on Catherine Bunnell plum… from Stans harvest post.
I went looking again, and this post here has the most information that I can find. Sound like it was almost lost because of the problems for commercial growers… but some of those challenges feel surmountable for a home grower with one tree.
For Waneta, It was my only plum that survived the frost last year, which may be why it tasted so good to me. The first two years it fruited it was not that great. So graft age and or scarcity impacts the enjoyment of this variety. It was way better than any grocery store plums fwiw.
@SoMtHomestead … that is what I was thinking too… those were first fruits from that Waneta tree. He was being a little too critical. He did say it was very sweet but on the flavor it was sort of average plum flavor.
I would be glad to have those myself.
I noticed earlier in this thread you said your american plums bloom in May.
My EU Plum is just now finishing up its bloom… and has set several fruit.
We could still have a hard frost though… in 2020 we got 26F on April 15. Wiped all my peaches, apples, even my grapes.
Plums that bloom in May… should be quite safe for me and dependable producers.
Would you expext this Vic Red american plum I grafted to bloom that late ?
Do you have any american plums that bloom that late that actually make decent fruit … size wise and taste wise ?
This Vic Red is supposed to be 2 to 2.5 inch diameter… but they had another smaller plum that they bragged more on the flavor.
Thanks
I think the May bloom might be an anomaly now. That same wild american is in full bloom right now and will be the last to bloom. It was in full bloom for that cold streak last year and still set a ton of fruit. They were small and astringentn but I didnt thin. They also got hit by brown rot because i wasnt spraying due the freeze loss.
I expect any true american plum to bloom around this time, depending on weather. The two improved varieties I can think of are South Dakota and Vic Red, both of which I have grafted this year.
Some reports of bloom times you see on the internet, especially those from the pnw are quite different than for us in the southeast. I suspect day length and how temperatures increase are factors.
@SoMtHomestead … i found above where you said your american varieties were not good for fresh eating.
I have superior and alderman grafts looking successful now.
I will try adding waneta, lacrescent and possibly AU cherry plum next spring.
The wild varieties were not good for fresh eating, i am holding out hope for the select varieties and the hybrids.
I am still hoping that your normal bloom times are significantly ahead of mine here. Up here, we are not out of the woods on hard freezes even in early May.
