Last spring my Superior plum never woke up and I’m not exactly sure why. We got down to -3, but we did that the year before and all was well. Anyhow I’m planning to replace it and was going put in another Superior because I liked the fruit, but I read (perhaps a throwaway line) in another thread saying something like, “Superior plum is anything but” and I started rethinking my choice.
For reference here’s what I have in the plum department:
Variety / Ripening date / Source
Sweeet Treat Pluerry Jun 25 – Jul 30 (DWN)
Shiro July 20 (ACN)
Burgundy July 20 (DWN) [pollinator for Pluerry]
Superior Aug 7 (DWN) [Dead]
Ruby Queen Sept 5 (CAN) [probably a typo for ACN]
So my questions are:
Should I plant another Superior?
What variety should I plant instead?
Flavor is most important but I’d like to stick with something that ripens around the same time to keep the season going an d not be buried by plums in late July.
If you have the ability, you could get some wood or budwood in the summer and graft it to an existing plum/cot tree. I had a Superior tree but i removed it and grafted it to a couple other trees. So my main branch is now on my apricot. Its a delicious plum if not allowed to overset! THIN THIN THIN… Last summer they were probably top 3 out of all the fruit i harvested from my trees. The skin does have some of that wild plum to it by the flesh is amazing. The other issue they can have is cracking and they like to fall to the ground when ripe.
Alternative? Flavor Supreme…yum yum and very early.
I have Satsuma. For some reason i can’t get it to set fruit. I think one issue is that it blooms very early. Might be that i have it in a location that gets direct south exposure and a north facing building behind it (very warm spot).
Satsuma is one of my few pure Japanese plums that blooms reliably. It fits your window. Its nothing like Superior, its a red-fleshed plum. Superior is a good plum, if you like that kind of flavor just replace it. I had some problems getting reliable fruit off my tree - some cracking, sometimes they would drop before ripe, etc.
I fruited Superior about 3 yrs. Even ran a thinning experiment. Heavily thinned it reached 24 brix. With twice that many fruit about 20 brix. IMO it doesn’t begin to compare to the better pluots like Flavor Supreme. As mentioned the skin is funky and flesh is too runny for me. Flavor just sweet. If one can grow Candy Heart, Burgundy, and Sweet Treat why not grow the best: Flavor Supreme and Flavor King.
And thanks for the link to Scott’s roundup. I used to love those things and GW and have many previous ones printed and on file at home.
For some reason the “search” icon doesn’t show up on my work computer. I discovered it at home the other day (which was a relief!) and when I got back to work I discovered if I move my mouse to that part of the screen I can click on the magnifying glass icon, it just doesn’t appear on my screen.
Thanks for the tips Fruitnut! I was looking for “the best” so that’s why I asked the question!
I’m not even sure how I decided on Superior. It was one of the first fruit trees I planted and I likely picked it by catalog description only.
I haven’t actually grown any Sweet Treats. I got the Sweet Treat and Burgundy a couple years ago and the Sweet Treat didn’t make it through the first winter so I replanted. I got my first few fruits off of Burgundy last year, but I didn’t harvest them in time so I didn’t actually taste them.
I was reading Scott’s report and he had a lot of problems with F. King and F. Supreme so should I be worried since our climates are similar? (I’m in Northern VA)
You might want to look at the 4 in 1 pluot trees that Raintree and a few others sell. I’ve had much success with them and you get a nice variety of some excellent tasting fruit.
“I was reading Scott’s report and he had a lot of problems with F. King and F. Supreme so should I be worried since our climates are similar? (I’m in Northern VA)”
Yes you should be concerned. I wasn’t sure where you are located. Those others will have issues as well in your climate. It just depends on how much you want to spray, hand pollinate, protect in potted culture, etc. For actual fruit with reasonable effort follow Scott’s lead.
Scott also had problem (and removed) the Ruby Queen plum which has done pretty well for me, but I’ve only had fruit from it for 2 years so maybe I just had two good years??? I’m also a further west and at (I think) a higher elevation than Scott (less humid and cooler) so maybe that has something to do with my “success”, if it’s not just a couple good years.
Warmwxrules - I was looking into one of those 4 in 1 jobs. If it’s a success, it’s a great success. If it’s a failure, it’s only one tree.
And after being buried in Shiro plums this year, I now see the wisdom of grafting instead of putting in a whole new tree.
