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!
Lost Mount Royal to Black Knot, what a great tree until it had to be removed.
Mount Royal filled my basement fridge the past two years, south of the twin cities. I also have some sort of gage- it was supposed to be green gage but it is more yellow-the nursery I bought from has been no help there. It produces minimally. The Mount Royal feeds smoothies to the whole family all year.
How’s your long John plum coming along? I had been very interested in that one but couldn’t give up the space.
E plums tend to be slow to reach sexual maturity. Use string to tie branches below horizontal, a practice that used to be called festooning when applied to plums, if my fuzzy memory has it right. This method is sometimes used with most common fruit species to accelerate bearing. If you do it in early spring I bet those branches will have flowers next season. You will also have a lot of shoots to prune by the bend in the branches. Best to do that during the growing season to keep light on the developing fruit buds below.
I’m in 6b in Central Oregon and 3800’ and my Bevays Green Gauge finally has blossoms this year, its 4th spring. Don’t give up just yet!
I’m growing in Edmonton Alberta 3b, 4a in city center where I am. My sister is across the border from Great Falls MN, but we are not close. I feel I have a pretty good (safe) idea about what will grow.
Personally, I only have a Mount Royal. Paid extra for a 10 gal sized at the nursery in early May 2024, and wow is it vig-or-us. Crazy growth first year after planting early May 2024. Decent crop 2025, expecting big crop 2026. Personally I think whoever rated it 2/5 for flavour is crazy. It’s awesome.
Anyway, since most of that is seconding what been said, I will say locally there is a major lack of European plum alternatives. I went through that list, and mostly haven’t read of any of the names being mentioned in the quite active local FB group. There is one fella who snuck in some Russian scions, he’s got a “Komet” doing well. I am not certain it is the exact genetics of the Comet mentioned.
The big news in hardy plums has been the Cheeky, a Asian-Euro Hybrid just hitting nurseries this year in Canada after wildly successful Beta trials. Z3, heavy cropping, larger than a Mt Royal, vaguely similar eating. I believe 2027 will see them across the northern US. However it is.. NOT self fertile.
Just to argue, in that above list, is it right of me to question that of the many which are not self fertile, that those may not be pure European, but instead back crossed hybrids? That’s my prejudice, but I’ve been wrong before…
Do you know who developed the asian-euro hybrid plum ‘Cheeky’, or have any other information about it? Such hybrids are extremely rare and difficult to produce. As far as I know, there are no named university-released selections, although some have been successful bred.
If you Google up cheeky plum, you come up with a line of girls’ clothing and backpacks.