hey folks. my wife rarely makes suggestions on what i grow so i need some help here. she likes the dark purple yellow flesh plums you usually get at the store and asked if i could put a tree in for her. as plums arent my thing what would be a good variety that can take our short cool wet weather, z3b/4a on clay soil? we have alot of black knot on the local chokecherries so it would have to be fairly resistant to that at least. a smaller tree would be better as i dont have alot of room left to play with. i will have it on a spray schedule with my sour cherries for good measure.
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I would think that the Japanese/American hybrids would be your best bet since they tend to be pretty cold hardy while also having good resisitance to black knot. I bought a Toka and Superior a few years ago specifically because of their resistance to black knot and they are also known to be pretty tasty too. Check out this article from the University of Maine:
https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2034e/
There are some nice charts and really useful info on the hardiness and disease resistance of various cultivars.
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Does she like a good prune plum? Mine do well here in western Montana, so they should be hardy enough for you, and the local black knot hasn’t got to them yet. I haven’t had to spray anything on them, and I think that’s the rule for a lot of feral prune plums around here. My wife and I love them just short of fully ripe, and they make superb jam and coffee cakes.
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didnt even know the U of ME had a write up on plums. thanks!
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not sure what cultivars make a prune plum? ive never seen her eat a prune but ill ask her.
I love finding good articles like that. That one is a treasure trove of info! Helped me a lot in choosing which plums to get.
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Mind they’re eaten fresh for the purposes of this discussion. I’m sure there are many cultivars but a prune plum is oval, perhaps somewhat small compared to lots of other plums, and is sweet enough to be dried mold-free without removing the pit. Here’s my prune on nanking cherry rootstock (took about 10 years from grafting to decent bearing!):
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Years ago while living in Minnesota I found that Pipestone, Waneta, Underwood, Toka , Superior ect were all popular Jap/american hybrids. They seemed to do fine in central Minnesota. I was very partial to Underwood as far as flavor went. Pipestone was big but somewhat mellow in flavor. Alderman was the last one brought out by U of MN and I did not care for the flavor at all. Only tried them once however so maybe I got some that were picked too early or too late but I was not impressed with the batch I bought at a roadside stand.
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Just another thought. Try Fedco in Maine for cold hardy plums. They used to have a great listing. I believe another source in New Hampshire also had a great list of cold hardy jap/american plums for sale too bare-root. Can’t think of their name at the moment.
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Superior! Fruity, Juicy, Delicious and blooms a bit before peaches and is nice and cold hardy. Its hard to describe how good of flavour and is purple when ripe and nice and yellow with a hint of orange on the inside.
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Remember flavor is subjective. For example I think Superior is ok but rather average in flavor. Not one of my favorites. Yet others love it.
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HI Steve. Im in the Lake George area of upstate NY. We used to be zone 4 but now 5 . It gets very cold in this area. I have about a dozen plum trees and have been getting devastated by Black knot . Methley, Bruce, Burbank, Santa Rosa, Black Ice, Hanska, Shiro, and especially Stanley Prune have been overwhelmed and all but two of those are still standing. So far, there is nothing on my Alderman( whiich has large red plumbs in August that taste great) and no sign of any on my Superior that is literally 10 feet from the infested Prune tree. I also have a Waneta that is still young but no sign of Black Knot. I have been trying to get new trees the past few weeks and finding that there arent a lot available mail order. The President is supposed to be a good one and I put that in last May. BlueByrd is another. And Kenmore(NY 9) is also supposed to be a good one, but I cant find one for sale. Order soon if your looking for spring delivery.
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