This photo from DWN shows what a good Santa Rosa looks like. They grow well in Calif.
Back East, folks seem to have an easier time fruiting the Weeping Santa Rosa version.
http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/santa-rosa-plum
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[quote=“Matt_in_Maryland, post:21, topic:11617”]
hat a good Santa Rosa looks like. They grow well in Calif.
Back East, folks seem to have an easier time fruiting the Weeping Santa Rosa version
[/quote]Looks like Black Ruby has Santa Rosa in it’s dna, so they must be at least somewhat alike http://fps.ucdavis.edu/treedetails.cfm?v=1343
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Little Steve Winter.
Trees three feet on center.
His greenhouse at elevations high.
Brix was at forty-one (41),
when he tested his plums, and said:
“What a good fruit-grower am I!”
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Great, yet I do not have anything to use as rootstock, and right now I have no idea where I’d put it. The plum tree we already have will pollinate Black Ruby, I just looked that up, yet it’s technically not my tree and I highly doubt I will be allowed to graft on to it, I will have to see, further more the place the other plum tree is located has lost a lot of sunlight over the years, trees from the neighbors are growing fast in to a part of our yard most of which is too high for us to prune it. The prunes from that tree are not as good anymore because of all the shade.
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Amen buddy…!!
My Geo pride today was only 30 brix and 30 grams, puny. But it packed a big punch.
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One of my first plum grafts was an El Dorado plum which I obtained from the annual Berkeley, Ca. CRFG scion exchange several years ago. It is an old cultivar of Japanese plum from Luther Burbank’s collection. According to my research, it was heavily commercialized circa 1940 but has since fallen out of production in favor of more modern cultivars. This plum seems to fit the OP’s description very well with pronounced Asian plum flavors that linger on the palette. This is not a flavor profile that I particularly care for however my wife likes it. I find French Mirabelle plums more to my preference for fresh eating.
One other attribute of this cultivar, at least in my climate and limited experience, is that it is absurdly vigorous. It will put on 10 to 12 feet of growth in a year if not pruned. I grafted El Dorado scions and Flavor Queen scions onto the stump of an old myrobalan seedling. It substantially out grows Flavor Queen which is also a vigorous cultivar in it’s own right.
Here is a picture of El Dorado today in my orchard. I did not do any thinning so they are somewhat crowded and a bit smaller than they could be if I had tended to them. In this picture they are unripe and in the process of turning from green to dark purple. The flesh is a golden yellow.
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Regardless of how long it will take I will certainly like some Black Ruby wood. Hopefully the neighbors trees come down soon, not just because the shade is a problem, tall trees here are a falling hazard. They will eventually fall on our property.
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I tried some “Larry Anne” Plums from a supermarket a few months ago.
They were very sweet and had a rich flavor.
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I have both and BR is a much better tasting plum. SR is more tart,
than sweet.
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Good thing you told me, I had bought a Santa Rosa that died. I was thinking of buying another one, Black Ruby being a variety so good for the south east as it is one reason that I want it since plum trees for us die fast, Bruce was the only one that did not. Did you buy a tree of it? Or did you use rootstock?
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Yes I think you are right, I remember that it could have a bluish or a purplish tint like I am seeing in the photos, yet these days there appears to be different similar varieties to Friar that are not as good that are in the stores. I was thinking that maybe they were not picked properly ripe.
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Most store plums are picked far too early. I rarely buy them for that reason. I also have heard that many other varieties of black plum besides Friar are commercially grown today. Many of these new varieties’ primary property is coloring up early so they can pick them even earlier than they should be picked.
Scott
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Thank you to everyone who has taken part in this thread.
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I bought both of my trees from Cumberland Valley years ago. I’ve never
experienced any plum trees dying, so you may have some other issues
going on. Both BR and SR do very well in the South, grow like weeds, and
are very productive, especially with cross pollination. I can send wood from both and would recommend growing both or AU Rubrum with BR.
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If I do a multi graft tree I’d have both Black Ruby and AU Rubrum, I have read about both and sounds like I’d like both more than Santa Rosa and AU Rubrum is highly disease resistant too. Are the fruit anything like Black Ruby or Santa Rosa?
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I am wondering if these varieties people are mentioning are disease resistant, I know that AU Rubrum, Black Ruby and Santa Rosa are all highly disease resistant. I know that Methley is a disease magnet here in the south.
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No, it’s a totally different plum, red with red meat, but it’s the best
plum I grow. I agree about methley. I got rid of mine, it was so bad.
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Ray do you get reliably good set on Santa Rosa? I gave up on my 15-year tree since it would only set well every third year or so. This is with 10 or so different varieties nearby to pollinate, and I even tried hand pollinating. Weeping Santa Rosa always sets well so thats what I topworked my SR with. To me there is no replacement for SR/WSR, they have a unique sweet-tart flavor not found in any other plum.
I don’t have Black Ruby, maybe I should try that one. I tried Ruby Queen from that series and it was often washed out in flavor. I should have gotten my first big AU Rubrum crop this year but the freeze did in my plums. AU Roadside was a total dud for me but AU Producer might be a good one based on a few fruits I got.
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Scott for what it’s worth my SR sets well in Texas. It was one of the only things this year to put on a good crop with our total lack of chill. Very diffrent climates though I know.
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This is typical fruit set on my SR. It does very well in the South, but obviously
not so well in more northerly climates. It also helps that it’s next to AU Rubrum, which sets even more heavily than this picture. Although both are self fruitful, having the the cross pollination aids in the heavy fruit set for both varieties.
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