USDA Fruit Tree Data Set

Reference
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I was scouring the internet this morning, looking for information on some obscure plum varieties, when I happened upon this interesting document
Fruit Tree Data_USDA WY.pdf (3.6 MB)

It contains the most-comprehensive set of data for fruit tree survival and production I have ever seen. They tested many thousands of fruit trees and recorded detailed data: bloom dates, harvest dates, production weights, growth, how often fruiting was successful, etc. Unfortunately, the data is poorly formatted. I spent some time re-formatting the plum data into a sortable table: Plum Data_USDA Cheyenne, WY_shared - Google Sheets
Plum Data_USDA Cheyenne, WY_shared .xlsx (47.2 KB)
There’s also lots of apple, pear, and cherry data, so, if someone is feeling interested and charitable, they can compile and post those.

I think this is particularly useful data because of the climate of the test site. Wyoming is quite arid, and they split tested between irrigated and not irrigated, so the non-irrigated trials show whether a variety is drought tolerant. The site is now zone 5a, but it was 4b-5a during the trial period (climate change). During the trials, temperatures dropped to -27* F (1942, 1951, 1963) on multiple occasions, and -34* F (1936) at the beginning of trials. So, any tree that survived long-term during these trials is clearly quite cold-hardy.

I think it’s interesting how poorly most varieties performed. Of ~400 varieties tested, only ~50 averaged more than 15 pounds of production per year. Of those, the only that I recognized as still commercially available were Pembina, La Crescent, Kahinta, Waneta, Ivanovka, Damsons, Compass, Mt. Royal, and Yakima. Many of the other varieties are now lost to time.

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Im hoping to graft some of my american plum trees to named varieties this year. Any varieties youd recommend? Ive heard that black ice is great, but not consistently hardy for my area unfortunately.

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I’ve tried these down south, all but one ( La Crescent ) was a complete failure.

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Toka, Pembina, Waneta, South Dakota, and Hanska (plus Mt. Royal for P. domestica) have all proven reliable picks for zone 3b/4a for about a century. Superior, Alderman, Black Ice, and Yakima produce very good fruit but might not make it through the coldest winters; they are better suited to zone 4b/5a.

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Disease pressure is a way bigger issue down southeast. They need plums specifically bred for resistance to black knot and brown rot, and even then still require frequent spraying. I think there are some beach plums and varieties from the AU series that growers here have had success with.

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