Does anyone have any experience with the plum strain from the USDA breeding program in Byron Georgia called Ruby Sweet? I found a table of plum varieties in a University of Georgia article which implies that Ruby Sweet may be a good strain for SE Georgia. Any thoughts? Is there any obtainable scion out there? Thanks.
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There’s trees on Cummins and Stark Bros. It’s freestone, apparently, which is interesting.
Coming from Georgia, I wonder if it is black knot resistant?
Most likely. All the Byron Series plums are supposed to be black knot resistant. And I’ve never seen black knot on a Chickasaw hybrid which is what Ruby Sweet is.
The University of GA paper did not mention it being freestone which I think it would have if it was so. That would be such a unique and positive feature for an Asian X Chickasaw hybrid bred for the Deep South it would have warranted a mention int the comments column which only said “productive, good fruit”.
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They could both be wrong, but Cummins and Stark Bros both claim it’s freestone.
I will try to do deeper research on that question. Usually there is a scientific paper in the literature giving details on the Byron releases. I’ll try to find it. Meanwhile, I’ve found two different sources of scion, so if it takes the bacterial stem canker pressure of my SE Georgia climate, I hope to know for sure whether it’s freestone or not in four to five years. For now, I will take it as a pleasant surprise if it is freestone based on what I know so far. But nurseries so routinely repeat each other’s nonsense about various expressly not self-fertile plum varieties as being self-fertile that I take everything they say about plums with a grain of salt.
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I do have experience with Ruby Sweet since 2013. Sorry, but no chickasaw in it’s breeding. If I remember correctly, seeds were brought to Georgia from California and planted @ Byron. I’ll post much more data later, but I’m pressed for time this morning.
Introgression-of-Prunus-Species-in-Plum.pdf (325.6 KB)
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Thank you. Any information you can offer would be welcome. Lack of P. angustifolia genes would explain why the UGA paper I saw indicated that pollen shed was so much better from it than what is typical of hybrid types from the Deep South. The Chickasaw cultivars I have, except for one, appear to be pretty much pollen sterile as best as I can tell from working with them for ten years and require the presence of wild-type P. angustifolia for a good fruit set.
Thanks.
Marcus Toole
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I am adding it. Its a Mariposa X Methley cross. both are highly regarded i think.
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I just added Rubysweet to my Cummins order (let’s hope this is my very last addition!!)- anyone with updated reports of it from last season?
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I grafted a mature Odom over to Rubysweet last year. It’s blooming now; we’ve mostly had cold and windy weather since it started blooming. Tomorrow will be the first truly warm day for its bloom cycle this year. Hopefully the bees will give the plum trees some attention tomorrow and pollinize it.
So far, the scion is healthy on this tree and other, smaller rootstocks I grafted. Maybe I will be in a position to report something about the fruit sometime in May or June. Thanks.
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Comparison of various plums by WR Okie… including Ruby Queen which is highly regarded. Ruby Queen has the darkest flesh that i have seen and RubySweet seems to be a notch above it in color.
I found one pic of the fruit after a pretty exhaustive search as not many people seem to share pics of it. Pic is from an orchard in MS.
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Maybe that is Ruby Sweet, but if it has flesh the color of Ruby Queen it certainly isn’t. Ruby Queen is my favorite J. plum and the Georgia program also gave me one of my top 5 in the Aprium, Spring Satin. Ruby Queen is dark purple from the skin through the flesh. It makes the most beautiful sauce you’ve ever seen, but I just can’t seem to grow enough to save it for that. I was eating perfect ones from my fridge up until I finished them maybe 10 days ago. They were still meaty and firm after over 6 weeks in storage and their dark flesh hides any ugly oxidation in storage.
Both of these should be much more widely planted in the humid region where J. plums can be grown successfully. Spring Satin seems immune to black knot and is going to be the mother tree of every single J. plum in my nursery in about 3 years.
Now to see if anyone has Rubysweet available. If anyone wants to swap wood that has it, let me know.
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Not sure what you mean? Ruby Queen has red flesh and Ruby Sweet has blood red flesh according to Okie. Maybe red is darker than blood red?
Not sure myself as there arent many photos other than the one i found (and that one could have been overhydrated)… from an orchard in MS.
Rubyqueen is misnamed- at least for my region. The flesh is a dark burgundy- but that is as grown here, and such coloration is said to vary with lighter color in warmer climates. I will ask Jen of ACN how it colors further south… she will likely know from actual experience.
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Yeah, well you are in a nearly perfect climate to achieve highest brix, but congrats.
I like this list for my region- Thanks CHAT. Of course there are other top tier pluots.
Elite Tier (very few plums reach this level reliably in humid climates)
These have that deep, perfumed, complex “red-flesh magic” that makes people stop mid-chew:
- Elephant Heart
- Ruby Queen (when fully ripe; matches EH in your estimation)
- Flavor Supreme (when it sets…)
- Emerald Beaut (late, green-skinned anomaly but elite flavor with hang time)
These are the plums that can reach berry/spice/wine aromatics + high brix + melting-yet-dense flesh.
Upper Tier (excellent, memorable, but a notch below the peak aromatics)
These still give you real depth, genuine Japanese-plum character, and very good eating quality:
- Satsuma
- Laroda
- Santa Rosa (when grown hot and thinned hard, not grocery-store SR)
- Burgundy (reliable sweet/tangy and quite good when tree-ripened)
- Hollywood (flavor excellent but too knot-susceptible for many sites)
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Alan says yeah… but without blood red flesh it doesnt match Okie’s description… which is all that we have to go on other than nursery descriptions and a few obscure pics.
Vaughn says its red flesh as well as Gurney’s Stark Bros…etc etc.
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But blood red flesh is not Ruby Queen? I was hasking about Ruby Sweet… they are both blood red flesh? Thanks!
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