Some friends and I picked wild plums yesterday for wine making. One tree in particular had an abundance of plums and were twice as big as most others. What is the best approach for propagation? Do these root easily? Do they grow true to seed? Or do I need rootstock and graft them?
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I think it would be worthwhile to plant some seeds; I would also take scions. But I’d think air-layering would be the most exciting aproach.
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It seems I have read here that plums will root. I considered air layers but I have not accomplished that yet even with an easy fig.
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I hope you try- but I know what you mean when you say you haven’t accomplished it yet. A search on this site will certainly help, as I’m sure you already know.
But I think grafting to a mature tree would be your quickest way to get fruit. I don’t know what your plums would be compatible with, though. Good luck with whatever you try.
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I know there are lots of different wild plums, but most of those in my area send up shoots like crazy from their roots and because of it they end up growing in thickets. I dug several up from a wild plum tree I found this spring and they are growing like crazy- 100% successful transplant of 5 small trees. Have you checked for small trees coming off the tree you want to propagate? It might be that easy!
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I did check and there were no suckers, unfortunately
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Grafting some scion from it would be the only sure fire way to get the same genetics. Unless the plum is growing by itself, suckers from plums can originate quite some ways from the mother plant.
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Compared to seeding, yes, but wouldn’t air-layered plants, or suckers also be clones?
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I too would suggest grafting wood from the desired mother tree. Seedling grown american plums are quite variable in their fruit. Some have very little flesh and others are actually quite meaty. You could grow out some of the seeds for rootstocks and then graft wood from the desired tree to the seedling rootstock. Or t-bud/chip bud onto the seedling rootstocks in summer.
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A lot of method have been mentioned and should work but this is a method I have used. When the tree is dormant go back and carefully detach a few roots. Keep them moist and plant as soon as possible where you want them or into a pot. Leave a 2-4" section of the large end pointed upward and out of the soil. Most will pump out a whip from the exposed area a few weeks after they would normally leaf out. I would still collect scion wood as another method. This sounds like a good plum that is worth the extra effort. Good luck with it. Bill
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I like that approach and may give it a try
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You are correct the air layering would give you identical genetics.
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Interesting, i had no luck with plum scions, but I will try this method next spring.
I have 4 Sierra Plums grown from seed. All 4 are significantly different. I’m hoping for fruit this year from this one which is very tough and vigorous. It’s wild how they seem to actually like the alkaline soil here. Snapped this pic today.
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In a hike in CO I ran across a ravine with wild plums. They ran for at least a mile. Every tree had plums the same flavor, color, and ripening time. There was some variation in size but I attribute that to water availability. They were thick skinned but tasted great. What i found interesting was there wasn’t any variability in the entire grove. They were disimilar enough to cross pollinate each other. This is the only time I have found wild plums where they were all good. Anyway I saved Some seeds and got three to sprout. Next year they will be in their second leaf. They’re still very small but I hope to graft them to one of my mature plums to get a quick crop. When this happens they will cross-pollinate with my plums and have variability and no longer be true to seed. I want to ultimately plant these three trees in an isolated spot so as not to introduce variability. It would great to have plum seeds that are true to their parents. It will be a multi-year project but should be very interesting.
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They need cold stratification.
About 90 days at temperatures of 34-42 degrees F… Also— the seeds should be in loose
slightly damp soil.
I put them in a pot of potting soil over winter and last spring they sprouted. Our winters are typically 40s durring the day and 30s over night so it’s easy to stratify seeds.
This looks like a great find to me. I’m speculating that these plums started with one seedling and slowly populated the area without being influenced by cross pollination from other sources allowing the trees/fruit to become similar. Just my opinion but I think you have a great project to keep the original trees as similar as possible. If you still have access to the original group of trees getting scions would be interesting to graft to other trees. Hope they work out for you.
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I wonder how much they spread via suckering. If so, then they would all be part of the same clone.
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Due to the topography and gaps between groves at least some have had to come from seeds. I wonder if Native Americans may have had a hand in spreading/cultivating them. I may be able to get more someday but for now I will propagate the three I have and eventually plant them on an isolated ravine in ND. (Family farm).
When I was little my dad and I were driving down a prairie trail when he stopped, handed me a bucket, and said “Go down this bank and you will find some plum trees. There will be some good ones. Pick those and we will give them to Grandma to make jam.” I asked him how he knew about them. He said he picked them when he was a kid. He said before that the Indians did.
I don’t know if they are still growing there. Someday I will check.
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