Toka plum in southeastern US?

General Fruit Growing
1

I know Toka is a plum that’s recommended for the north for its cold-hardiness, but has anyone tried it in the southeast? Is it disease resistant? The descriptions of its artificial-seeming bubblegum-like flavor sound fun.

How many chilling hours does it need? A recent frost makes me wonder if I should plant trees that bloom very late, as long as they manage to bloom at all here.

I’m also interested in other northern plums, like La Crescent. I planted a Toka and a La Crescent when I lived in the frozen north, and got exactly one exquisitely delicious La Crescent plum before moving south, leaving my trees behind.

2 Likes
2

I have grown several of the cold-hardy plums (but not Toka) and they all have done well for me in Maryland. I am going to add Black Ice this spring. I hate bubblegum flavor so Toka is not on my list!

1 Like
3

Thanks! I should ask for a list of other fruits you hate.

You’d really hate an herb called Fruit Salad Sage. It smells so fake, I burst out laughing when I first smelled it. These things are silly, but I get a kick out of them.

1 Like
4

Toka here in Ohio are small, yet have a nice flavor. If I didn’t have as much room as I do to grow, I probably wouldn’t keep it when comparing it to other BIG JUICY plums.

Hope you don’t have to travel on the highway in northern Atlanta.

5

One nice thing about Toka is that it is a good cross pollinator for other asian plums because it has a very long bloom time.

2 Likes
6

Any idea about how many chilling hours it needs? When does it bloom compared to more southern plums? I have Ruby Queen plum and Spring Satin plumcot, both bred here in Georgia, and Guthrie and NC McKibbon Chickasaw plums. Would Toka’s bloom time overlap with any of those?

7

Stark Bro’s site says it needs about 400 chill hours, as far as if it would overlap with your tree’s I can’t say for sure, but my guess would be yes

8

I grafted Toka to two of my trees both took. I’m anxious to see how they do, I’m concerned about black knot. All the Northern big plums have poor resistance.

1 Like
9

I’d give it a try…put it right out in the open where it can get the full effect of whatever cold you have…avoid anything that might reflect light/heat back at the tree during the day. Im not sure it would make a difference re chilling hours, but try shading the root zone too.

10

I dunno about BIG northern plums, but I got scinons of a bunch of those northern Japanese-to-native crosses, grafted them on a local american plum, tree got big, bloomed annually, never got any fruit. I know sometimes curculio got a lot of them, but seriously, i’d expect a few fruit to get bigger than BB size. One thing I can say though, is that none of that tree got any Black Knot, even when Ozark Premier beside it became infected.

1 Like