I’m starting to add some European plums to my backyard orchard here in Minnesota zone 4b. I’m planning to add Mount Royal, Opal, Yakima, Count Althann’s Gage, Silver Prune, Long John, Autumn Sweet, and Burbank Grand Prize. I’m also interested in Yellow Egg, Bavay’s Green Gage, and Golden Gage.
Does anyone have experience or knowledge about growing any of these varieties in zone 4? Would they be likely to survive a once-in-a-decade cold snap to -33* F?
I have Mt Royal and Golden Gage from St Lawrence nursery. They have been in the ground for at least 3 years with no die back. Unfortunately they have yet to fruit for me despite their large size and vigorous growth. Maybe this year is the year.
Thanks Trevor, I bet you’ll see a few fruit this year, if the blossoms make it through this early spring.
I’ve heard European plums are less precocious and less vigorous than hybrid-Japanese plums and that its common for them to take 5+ years to bear fruit. On the plus side, they can live longer.
i have black ice that survived 3 days of -40 its1st winter in ground.
We are in Z5 VT but it used to be Z4
There is a husband & wife close by who have a couple thousand plums and they published their experience a couple of years ago as a Z4
| Production | Taste | Hardiness | Japanese Plums/hybrids | Production | Taste | Hardiness | Peaches | Production | Taste | Hardiness | Cherries | Production | Taste | Hardiness | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starks Blue | 4 | 2 | 4 | Shiro | 5 | 2 | 4 | Wisconsin Balmer | 4 | 4 | 4 | Kristen | 4 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Early Laxton | 4 | 3 | 4 | Ozark Premier | 3 | 4 | 2 | Intrepid | 4 | 3 | 4 | Starks Yellow | 5 | 2 | 4 | |||
| PP 6995 | 5 | 3 | 4 | Comet de Kumetz | 5 | 1 | 5 | Reliance | 3 | 2 | 4 | Black Gold | 3 | 4 | 2 | |||
| Mt Royal | 5 | 2 | 5 | Methley | 5 | 3 | 4 | Hardired | 3 | 5 | 3 | White Gold | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Fellenburg | 5 | 4 | 4 | Toka | 4 | 3 | 4 | Madison | Hudson | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||||||
| Long John | 4 | 3 | 4 | Kaga | 4 | 3 | 4 | Contender | Evans | 5 | 3 | 5 | ||||||
| Early Blue | 5 | 2 | 5 | Gracious | 5 | 3 | 4 | Millers Superhardy (not?) | Balantin | 3 | 4 | 3 | ||||||
| NY71 | 5 | 3 | 5 | Surprise (may be Kaga) | 4 | 3 | 4 | Surecrop | Sure Fire | 3 | 4 | 4 | ||||||
| Castleton | 5 | 3 | 5 | Alderman | 4 | 4 | 3 | Red haven | ||||||||||
| General Hand | Purple Heart | 5 | 5 | 3 | Ranger | 3 | 4 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Early Transparent Gage | Early Costello | 4 | 4 | 3 | Polly | 4 | 4 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Ersinger | 5 | 4 | 5 | kahinta | 5 | 3 | 4 | Georgia Belle | 3 | 3 | 2 | |||||||
| Pearl | 2 | Ptistin #5 | 4 | PF24C | ||||||||||||||
| Empress | 5 | 5 | 5 | Pembina | 5 | 3 | 5 | Seedlings | 4 | 2 | 5 | |||||||
| Alabaster | 3 | 4 | 4 | Pipestone | 5 | 3 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Cambridge Gage | Red heart | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Imperial Epinese (not?) | Starks Delicious | 4 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Hungarian Red | 3 | 3 | 4 | Red Glow | 3 | 2 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Opal | 5 | 4 | 4 | Superior | 4 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Kirkes Blue | 4 | 4 | 4 | Marisopal | ||||||||||||||
| Peach Plum | 3 | 3 | 4 | Obil’naja | 5 | 4 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Jefferson (blue prune) | 3 | 4 | 3 | Rema | 5 | 3 | 3 | Ratings are 1-5, 1 is low, 5 is high | ||||||||||
| De Montford | 4 | 4 | 4 | Au Auburn | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Schoolhouse | 5 | 3 | 5 | Rose Marie | 4 | 5 | 3 | Trees with no ratings have not produced enough for ratings | ||||||||||
| Mirabelle De Metz | 3 | 4 | 3 | Formosa | 3 | 5 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Mirabelle de Nancy | 2 | 4 | 2 | Sumumo | 4 | 4 | 4 | Hardiness is determined by how many trees have died, and how often they have not fruited due to weather | ||||||||||
| American Mirabelle | 4 | 5 | 5 | Early Golden | ||||||||||||||
| Oullins Gage | 5 | 4 | 4 | Satsuma (not?) | ||||||||||||||
| Seneca | 3 | 4 | 4 | Wickson | ||||||||||||||
| Royal de Vilvoorde | 3 | 5 | 3 | Duarte | ||||||||||||||
| Queen Anne | 3 | 2 | 2 |
|Yakima|3|3|3||||||||||||||||
|Rosey Gage|4|5|||||||||||||||||
|Catherine|2|5|4||||||||||||||||
|Great Yellow|5|5|3||||||||||||||||
|Jefferson gage||3|||||||||||||||||
|Valor||5|||||||||||||||||
|Stanley|4|2|4||||||||||||||||
I have 2 Mt Royal, Empress, Valor, and Green Gage all in the ground the past 2 winters and were fine (this past winter was mild but last winter was -25)
Rubus, that table is awesome! Loads of valuable information that will help me improve my orchard. Thank you!