@scottfsmith
I have read people saying their Euro have taken a long time to produce and don’t produced well. My Euro plums all have produced in year 3 and the varieties I have, have produced consistently. Variety like Coe’s Golden Drop, if I let it carry heavily one year, it would have a light crop the next year. Mirabelles and @BobVance ’s Valor, French Improved are good producers. I give credit to their Marianna 2624 rootstocks.
Valor
French Improved.
I just dug out/cut down a row of cherry plums. It’s been so long since I’ve had more than a handful of chums I can hardly remember it. Great producer of blossoms but late frosts (and maybe pollination issues) result in no fruit. Magnet for aphids and ants. And being near my blueberries I just got real tired of pulling suckers out.
The asian plums are next. For all the same reasons. It’s hard to give up (as so many of you know) after so many years of care and struggle but it’s time to admit that this just isn’t plum county. I do have some euro plums grafted onto american in a different area and I may leave them and see if I can get a taste of fruit some day.
I have a few growing out in the field and they get to stay just for the beauty of the blooms. Sue
I removed 2 pluots, after 6 years with nothing, I realized I might not have the chill hours for them.
Same with 2 apricots, it had nothing.
I tried this with a few pawpaw rootstocks this year. It remains to be seen if I’ll have success.
Removed a seedling plum that fruited and the fruit were garbage. I think what is happening is various plums are getting pollinated by wild plums and that must be a strong trait in these seedlings//i believe the seed from the tree was from a named variety. Also cut back a tri lite peach plum…might still remove it.
Is there something wrong with the variety?I’ve read the flavor is good.
I was thinking about getting rid of mine (double graft of Sprite and Delight). It has produced fruit for several years, but I never thought it was any good. This year, I’ve had less animal pressure and was able to let them hang (fruit, not animals…) for over a month.
Back in late July, they were 12 brix and edible, but not great. Now they are 15-16 brix and very tasty.
First colored:
Later:
A couple days ago, I decided that they were good enough and I was tempting fate. So, I picked 90% of what was left on the tree (maybe 5-10 pounds), leaving a few, just in case it gets even better. But, now they soften very quickly after picking (and sometimes on the tree), so I think they are about ready. I’m glad I didn’t remove it earlier, though I will need to prune it back pretty hard to get rid of black knot (something I ignored to get a harvest this year).
I’m one of those people who has to wait a long time for Euro plums. In the last few years I’ve been pruning them a lot more, trying to keep good sun exposure. I’m not sure if it has helped, or they were just old enough. The good sun exposure didn’t make them immediately productive, as I think it was 3 years ago and I only had a few fruit the next year. This year, most Euros had a light (but existing! finally…) crop, most in year #6, with some in year #8. Late Transparent Gage and Ersinger (very early prune) were heavily loaded.
The LTG is grafted to a Middleburn, which is on Myro 29c. The Ersinger is actually on Marianna 2624, but it was on that rootstock since 2016 and this is the first time it’s produced.
Two other non-productive trees (Gras Romanesc and Jefferson (probably misnamed)) are also on 2624.
I suspect that you have done a good job keeping them sun-exposed and may have spaced them further than I did. Most of mine are 5-8’ spaced in rows.
Back to the subject, I’ve removed 6 plum (or plum variants) trees in the last year. They were all badly affected by black knot. Some, like Flavor Supreme were also extremely stingy with flowering (I never saw fruit on it in 8 years.
I recently removed a peach (my TangO 
) as wilted without apparent reason. I’m a bit concerned that it could be X-disease, as I didn’t find the borers I expected when I cut it down. Another peach (not that far away) has also wilted a bit recently (though not as badly). I may preemptively remove it.
Some of the trees that are removed get jujubes as replacements. Others just stay removed and give nearby trees more space, depending on how packed things are and how much I like the neighboring trees.
I also removed a couple hardy kiwi vines last year. One (geneva) came back from the roots and got banished to a less desirable (but open) location at the bottom of the yard. The other (supposed to be a male vine, but was instead a fairly non-productive female vine) got cut down again.
The kiwi spots got jujubes planted. And it may have helped a nearby kiwi too- this is the first year that I’ve got fruit on my Ken’s Red vine (planted in 2011). Of course, the KR is hanging down over one of the jujubes (one I particularly want to size up), but I can’t bring myself to cut it back (at least the parts with fruit) and lose what I’ve been waiting 10+ years for.
@BobVance which hardy kiwi is most productive in our area? I am thinking of having one or two (depending on space availability).
Ive got several I might put on the chopping block after this year. My 4x1 cherry tree has been a waste of space. A suncrisp tree of mine seems to be runted out. Its tiny and hasnt produced much at all after 6 years. I’ve even fed it urea this ywar to try and jump start it. Ill gove goldcot one more year until i chop it down. Apricots are a bad idea here.
Its good if i remember right…pretty fruit/red in the flesh. Tree looks excellent but while it leafs out fine, the fruit buds get winter kill every year. i might give it one more chance. I think this year i had a bloom or 2 survive.
I ate some Reliance grapes today. Wow those things are good. I should just grow grapes.
| Variety | Production | Quality | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issai | A+ | B | Massively productive, OK quality, a bit less vigor, but still grows big |
| Jumbo/Chico | B+ | C+ | Very large fruit. Only OK. |
| Rossana | B+ | A- | Lots of nice red fruit |
| Geneva | B | B | All around OK |
| Cordifolia | B- | A | Very sweet pumpkin shaped fruit |
| Fortyniner | C- | A- | Good fruit, but only parts of the vine productive |
| Ken’s Red | F | ? | Fruit for the first time in year #11. Scott’s favorite |
Keep in mind that you’ll need a male for pollination. These vines can get big and need pruning to keep them in check (and even then they are big). Making a trellis before planting is a good idea.
If I was going to plant 2 females it would be Rossana and Cordifolia. Kiwi don’t need spray for me, but they are work to prune and build a trellis for. Not worth the maintenance/space if you only get iffy fruit, so go for the ones that are really good.
Last year, I grafted Cordifolia over Chico. Of course, this spring, I finally removed a pine tree in the front yard which allowed the original Cordifolia to spread out a lot (two 10’ runs and two 15’ runs, all for one vine, in a big lopsided X. So in future years I may have more than I planned of it.
Probably going to be taking out the old Italian prune plum next year. The shade factor has become prohibitive as the shade trees get bigger. There weren’t even enough fruits set this year for its usual mega-drop in August. And now I see a lot of new black knot started.
Unfortunately, the Brooks plum I planted to replace it has taken up the drop habit, so there’s not much left to pick.
I have both versions of the Issai. One version has small OK fruit. It may be on the chopping block for me.
How is the fruit from the 2nd Issai? Better than the “OK” one?
Have a bunch of the regular issai, but not much fruit. They have only been there 3-4 years and if there was any fruit it was stolen. The fake issai fruited super quick. To bad it’s not bigger and better. I have like 10 anna that are 5-6 years old still not doing much. I’ve almost lost interest in them and started fuzzy.
Bob,
All I have done for my Euro is planting them in full sun and bending their branches. The space is not great. It is about 7-8 ft apart. With branch bending , these branches have crossed one another. When I covered one of the trees with a Kootanay tree cover, it was a difficult task to do with branches from the other tree in the way.
Since yours are also productive early on, maybe, branch bending is the key.
It’s important to select low-chill varieties out here. Once you get a good variety going, you can always get additional scions from the CRFG and graft them onto the mother tree. I’m in the process of doing this now.
Thankfully everything I’ve removed has been due to its untimely death. Deer are a big issue and there is only so much gnawing that a tree can take before its to week to survive my winters.
