Ssuper Santa Rosa - no fruit!

13 years ago

The Home Depot tag said the Santa Rosa plum was self-fruitful; second year it had 10 fruits - what flavor!- then 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 0. The tree is growing like crazy -lots of flowers, but no fruit. (A neighbor 70 feet away also has a Santa Rosa) Can we graft something that would make it fruit, or should we give up, tear it out and start over?

Thanks for any advice.

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Comments (6)

rayrose
13 years ago
Even though it is supposed to be self fruitful, planting another tree close by it will help polinate your tree.
Your neighbors tree may be too far away. BTW, is your
neighbor's tree productive? I'd recommend planting a
methley 15 - 20 ft. from your santa rosa.
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
13 years ago
Plumbs are super easy to graft. I have mine grafted to Mariposa plum which works well as a pollinizer. One limb on your tree is all you need. Al
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fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
13 years ago
I think sunset 23 is in CA. If so you can grow the really high quality plums and pluot. The best plums are Laroda, Burgundy, and Emerald Beaut. Pluot are even better. Your best bet there for pollination is Flavor Grenade. Flavor King which matures at about the same time is one of the all time greatest fruit. These both mature well after Santa Rosa. If you want an even later fruit to extend your harvest season, try Flavor Finale. Santa Rosa, King or Grenade, and Finale will give you four months of great fruit and solve any pollination issue.

My Santa Rosa in CA set so many fruit it was really a pain thinning. Not sure pollination is the issue but it's probably worth trying a pollinator before you cut down the tree.
alan haigh
13 years ago
All who purchase (almost anything) from Home Depot take their chances. A fruit tree is an investment for decades to come. The tag should have read "partially self fertile with pollinator required for reliable production" but that wouldn't have helped sales. Santa Rosa in not considered adequately self fertile to grow without a pollinator to my knowledge.
ravenh2001
13 years ago
my ebay 4.95 fruit trees are a joke planted in 2004 still look poor and put on 3-5 fruits each year. I planted 150 of them. the trees I bought at adams county nursery in 2008 I have to thin the fruit and they have grown 4'taller then the 2004 stock. cost per tree was about 12.50 including shipping and fees. 2011 will tell the tale if the first don't come to the front chainsaw. 5 santa rosa's on 6 trees this year. (late frost maybe zone 3-4). I thought it would be a natural orchard when I bought the old farm because an apple tree fallen over and rotten had clean fruit 4" by the bushel on the lawn. I want to have 1000 trees when I retire in 10 years to just sit back and colect the money (lol) at a pick your own. changed my plantings from 25/50 to 13/25 this year have to prune more. I ordered plumbs aprocots apples pears peaches cherries and grapes this year and started clearing land for next years plant. 15 ac and growing. lot is 72 ac wife says stop now son just planted 43 fruit trees on his lot and said " i'll have bigger more productive trees sooner". can't let him win
fruithack
13 years ago
I've given up on Japanese plums. The Santa Rosa and Mariposa I had were even more susceptible to late frosts than my sweet cherries and had just as many disease problems. I'm switching over to pie cherries and early peaches and nectarines. Mariposa plums are one of my favorite fruits, but that's the way it goes.