Picked a Black Splendor today, the Obilnaja “picked” itself.
Left: Black Splendor; Right: Obilnaja
Black Splendor brix: 24
Obilnaja brix: 20
This Obilnaja is slightly smaller than average.
This Black Splendor is average size.
Flavor profile is very similar. I’m not sure that I could tell them apart in a blind taste test. Since flavor is about the same, I prefer the larger plum.
Both taste significantly better than a 21 brix Methley.
Hi Kevin,
Those look delicious! Can you remember which one blossoms heavier, and whether they are early, mid or late to blossom? As I search for adding new varieties I am trying to increase the pollination of what I have. Here are picks of one of my natives
The two dark red small one on top are cherry plums, all others another native p. Americana
Enjoy!
Dennis
Bloom times are pretty compressed here, so all of the asian plums seem to bloom at the same time. Black Splendor definitely wins the race for profusion of blooms and quantity of fruit set, but I caution that these are all first year grafts, so my observations are limited.
Where did you get the wood?
Those P Americana are mind blowingly large- at least compared to mine. I have some wild plums that I assume are those (I found them growing in an old fence row and dug some up and put them in my orchard). But mine rarely get any bigger than an average Bing Cherry. Maybe they are something else…or maybe you are just a better grower! :). Also, mine get solid red when ripe. hmmmm?
I have identified three unique varieties of P Americana, I read there are over 200 but so far I have only three, the red ones in the pic, a green one that is about half that size and another that produces a small Italian dark purple prune plum. All three are nice and sweet and do not have many insect issues, so I do not spray them. All produce in a thicket like environment. If you decide to want some I have plenty to spare.
Dennis
Kevin,
Your wild plums intrigue me from your description, and may just be very similar to what I grew up with as a kid near Somerville, Tn. As I grew up our plum thickets began to slowly disappear, not sure why, but they were all colors red, orange yellow,etc but usually full of thornes but we enjoyed eating them. These were more bushes than trees rarely over about 5-6’ high. Another we called wild goose had fruits about the size of a bantam chicken egg and grew about 12’-15’ high. These were my favorites. Can you send me a picture of your fruiting wild plums?
Dennis
Hey Dennis!
Yes, I think I may very well have exactly what you say you grew up with! THey absolutely grow in thickets, and while mine were all red this year the land owner said they have different colors in the same thickets. And I think they probably could be better described as bushes than trees, even though I sort of prune them to be small trees. Here is a photo of one of my trees/bushes and another photo of the fruit. Very small but quite tasty!
THey send up suckers like crazy.
Kevin,
I am very excited! Those are exactly what I recall! I would love to obtain both rootstock and seed. I can trade both if you wish or just pay you to send some my way. So please save me around 25-39 seeds and we can discuss what I can provide you. I thought I would never be able to locate these again! Really interested
Thanks and let me know if I can get anything together for you
Dennis
Mike in Spangle is a local plum enthusiast from near a small town south of me. He orchestrates our local scion exchange, at least he did before COVID.
It’s always SOOOOO gratifying to help someone find a long-lost fruit! It would be my absolute pleasure to help you reconnect with your childhood via this wild plum. I never charge for wood or seeds, whether you have something I want to trade for or not I’ll be happy to help you acquire this plum.
All that being said, I didn’t save any seeds and the fruits are long gone now (that photo was a few weeks ago). I’ll see if I can find some under the tree. I can try to dig up some suckers after the mother and them go dormant. Just remind me this winter and I’ll be happy to help.
Thanks Kevin,
I would love to get some of your local wild rootstocks this fall once the suckers are dormant, and I could easily give you several varieties that you probably do nor have via scions or rootstock (suckers) if you would like them. I understand that all varieties of PA cross pollinate each other, and that is why they are much more prolific in fruit setting in the thicket format, so I this winter I will be saving scions from each of my three distinct varieties to graft onto my others so that they can fully pollinate for better production. I am also starting several new plum thickets in locations close by where I can observe them over time. So adding as many different colors as you can reasonably provide would be great. So I will let you know about when mine are dormant this fall and would survive transport, I will gladly handle shipping in both directions and very much appreciate your generosity! If seeds can be found that would be great to get them as well. I am saving my three variety seeds and am willing to share them. Do you happen to know if local people refer to these with a name? I am wondering if they are the same as Chickasaw, or if that may be a different variety, which I also do not yet have. This past spring I was able to obtain several Wild Goose trees from a nursery, they are now about 3’ high and perhaps in a year or so I can provide either seed or scions from these. I am hoping that they are the same ones I recall from my childhood but until I see their fruit, I will not know for certain.
Take care
Dennis
Dennis
Just planted an Oblinaja this spring because all of my existing Plum trees have become infested with Black Knot. Its supposed to be very resistant. Was nice to see what it looked like.
That looks delicious. I’ve been looking for that plum (Black splendor), and the Owen T plum tree or scion wood myself. This year I grafted Angeleno to one of my trees and it has grown a few feet. It grew enough that I took a cutting and chip budded this years growth onto a few other trees so hopefully next year I’ll have lots of those. I bought an Autumn Giant bareroot plum tree this year but I think it died on me and it really bums me out. I’ve gone a little plum crazy in my backyard I think I’m around 15 different Asian plums now give or take, not including the pluot and pluerry trees. Your Black Splendor looks awesome.
Hi Kevin,
Our local plums here are shedding their leaves, if you have a chance to locate some of your suckers for root stocks, let me know. I would be happy to exchange a few of mine for a few of yours.
Dennis
Kent, wa
All of my plums are grafted to peach trees, so no suckers.
Native Chickasaw Plum.
Hey Dennis! Believe it or not, all the trees here where I live still have leaves and are very much awake. For whatever reason, this is BY FAR the latest my fruit trees have ever waited to go dormant. Even my fig trees still have all their leaves because we have only had one minor frost and that didn’t get many of my fig leaves. To be fair, it will likely be around Christmas before I’ll be sending things out, but I’ll keep you in mind and I do know that I have some root suckers on the wild plums you want. I can dig some up and send them do you, though I obviously can’t guarantee you whether cutting them off the main root will let them live. Then again, that’s how I got them so it should work out.
I’ll try and remember you but by all means if I haven’t got back to you by first of the year don’t hesitate to remind me…memory isn’t what it used to be!
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your update, Since ours are nearly dormant, and my brother near Somerville says they have had frost, I figured yours would be close. I have been digging up some of my volunteer suckers, so if you want some different wild varieties I have about three, four if you count my cherry plum. The pics I am showing below are fruits from each. The first pic is a native that produces very sweet fruits similar to but a bit smaller than a Stanley plum. Some, but not all of these have some thorns. The second type produces a fruit that fits the green gage description. The bottom pic of fruit includes two small red cherry plums on top of the larger fruit of the fourth variety. All are clear stone and very sweet when fully ripe.
I have been collecting these suckers and letting them grow to be rootstocks or stand alone trees with their inherited traits. These and the ones you send me will form several new native thickets nearby on several public right of ways where the barren hillsides call out for something wild to grow!
But I have plenty of each so should you want several I can ship them to you once for spring planting, that will assure they are dormant.
Dennis
@SpokanePeach do you have an update on your taste evaluation for Obilnaja and Black Splendor? I prefer sweet but complex flavors than “mainly sweet” with not much else so these seem promising. Also prefer juicy but not necessarily dripping juicy. As juicy as the common Italian prune if youre familiar with that.
