This tree is growing in an overgrown area at the edge of my yard. I didn’t plant it and it doesn’t look like anyone did. (at least intentionally) I never really noticed it before last year when I pruned it back some and cleared away some smaller trees near it. This year it is just loaded with fruit. I am going to keep an eye on it and see what the ripe fruit are like.
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My first thought is possible euro plum- perhaps a gage or damson or prune plum. I dunno.
Nice surprise. Hope it taste good.
Now I just need to figure out a way to protect the plums. I have big squirrel problems outside of the area my dog patrols. I suspect that once these begin to ripen the squirrels will be on them like a bushy-tailed blanket of destruction.
Interestingly enough I haven’t seen much plum curculio damage on them. I found a few bites but most fruit are completely unmarred.
Also, I considered starting a completely new thread for this but will instead just drop it here since it is related in a way.
For reasons unrelated to growing fruit I have only been home a few weeks over the last year. This has forced me to leave my various plants, etc, completely without care. The results of this unintentional experiment in neglect haven’t been that bad…
My young Goldrush and Hopples Antique Gold (Golden Delicious sport) are both fairly badly affected by CAR. Meanwhile my Mammoth Black Twig, Arkansas Black, Enterprise, and Liberty apples all show little to no CAR.
I lost one of five Jostaberry bushes. This bush got too much sun and would lose all its leaves in the heat each summer. It never grew well and is finally dead. The others appear to be growing fine. My two Red Currants are producing prolifically this year and look healthy. Similarly my Pixwell and Black Velvet gooseberries are doing well, though I have missed all the berries on Black Velvet.
My Chicago Hardy and mystery fig both froze badly. The Chicago Hardy froze to the ground and is sprouting from the roots, but only barely. The mystery fig (a gift from a neighbor down the street) had perhaps 80% die-back and is growing from a few feet up one trunk and from the ground. (with much greater vigor)
My Nikitski Raani pom seems to have survived without damage and is now flowering.
My Carmine Jewel Cherries had a decent crop, finishing about a week ago. One bush lost a whole trunk for some reason. It just died for no reason I can see, but the rest of the plant it growing well. They were coming down with a pretty severe case of cherry leaf spot and rapidly losing leaves when I got home. I have sprayed them so hopefully that will put a stop to it. My one Crimson Passion bush continues to basically languish and is leaking sap at a couple points, causing small limbs to die. (likely gummosis) Unless this bush makes a dramatic recovery it will be replaced this Fall.
Blueberries are great, including Pink Lemonade. Powerblue and Oneal are ripe now. Pink Lemonade looks like they will follow in another week or two.
Prime Ark Freedom blackberries (planted last spring) aren’t looking so hot. They aren’t dead but are showing widely varying growth. Some are only trailing along the ground while others have sent up proper canes. There are a few berries on some of the larger plants. None have died so hopefully they make progress.
Heavy crop of beach plums this year, but I see a fair bit of plum curculio damage.
My various japanese plums have no fruit this year.
All the trees I transplanted (2 apples, 2 paw paw, 1 mulberry) have all survived and leafed out.
My guess is Prunus nigra (Canada plum). How big are the fruits? We will have a better idea when they ripen. My understanding is that Canada plum is usually astringent even when very ripe.
They are small. I would say they are about as tall as a quarter is wide. (which is to say significantly bigger than Beach Plums)
I will take a picture with something for scale soon.
I will give it about a 75% probability that it is P. nigra. That turns to 100% if the fruit are astringent. P. americana is the second most likely candidate, but I really think it’s P. nigra. We planted P. nigra in the community orchard I helped start on the Louis Bull Cree Reserve about 8 years ago, and the leaves on that tree look just like the ones on the young seedling P. nigra trees that we planted to serve as pollenizers for the hybrid plums. God bless.
Marcus
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