Thanks for the responses. As for cracking, it seems not to depend so much on the firmness of the outside, but the amount of sugar on the inside. Pembina (and a bunch of others especially the American-Japanese hybrids) ripen from the inside out, being firm on the outside and soft in the center. When they crack they open up like a flower showing the pit. The trick is to pick them as soon as the center starts to soften, before to much sugar is released (the sugar causes an increase in pressure if water is present). We do this by tasting as we go, but still loose a lot of fruit. As for the best variety, the question we deal with is "What is the best today". We are setup up for sequential ripening with over 70 plum varieties, 6 or so peaches, and sweet and sour cherries (we have a couple of apricots which produce a crop every 3 years or so, could use more if they cropped regularily). The cherries start in the middle of July and the rest start at the beginning of August and last until the middle of Oct, so we need a "favorite" every week for 12 weeks. The favorite of our customers by far is Purple Heart, medium sized Japanese which is purple all the way thru with outstanding flavor. It requires multiple picking over a couple of weeks but stores very well for a Japanese. Other favorites include: American Mirabelle, which ripens at the beginning of Sept and is extremely sweet and flavorible Royal De Vilvoorde medium small european, Kirkes Blue, blue European with very sweet green flesh Catherine, late yellow European De Montford, Early European Oullins gage a large sweet gage and productive Alabaster, medium sized yellow European Empress and Fellenburg (from millers), very rich and sweet Opal, Small early European Early Costello, early purple Japanese ripens just after methley with much better flavor Rose Marie, very good late Japanese large purple with purple-red steaks (may be mis-identified, I got it as scionwood from a private party) Formosa, very large very good japanese, marginally hardy, fruits every couple of years Great Yellow, large yellow very good plum, productive, Burbank selection Superior good, but cracks Ozark Premier, Large Japanese, marginally hardy but normally crops, must be picked while hard or turns to mush These are the favorites, but most of the others are very good when picked at peak ripeness which is what we do. There is a good deal of waste (which I plan on turning into brandy after I retire from my day job). Please let me know your favorites as well. We need better early varieties, I have a 2nd yr Early Gold which has not fruited yet, and ordered some Oushi wase for this spring. We have Methley, Comet de Kumetz(sp?), Early Costello for early plums I could not find anyone selling Early Magic (Hilltop does not list it). Would it be possible to get some scionwood? I have a couple of 2nd yr Satsuma�s (and Marisopal� as well) which had 2 plums on them last year, should get more this year. We tried Santa Rosa, but they were not hardy enough (couple of crops then died) As for the gages, our green gage (gurney�s) is significantly different than our Riene De Claude gage (grin). I am sure there are many strains out there. Both are not very productive, and if they don�t put out a good crop this year I will pull them out. On the older varieties, like Fellenburg, the specific strain may be important, I have read that Valor is significantly sweeter than Fellenburg, but its hard to believe since the variety we have is so sweet its like honey. Eric

Fellenberg, I believe, is considered similar to Italian, but as I said, I never have grown it. It tends to be rated a moderate cropper. I consider Italian here less than a moderate bearer so I'm guessing Fellenberg would likely be same. There's a lot of tricks I use to accelerate bearing so I'm not sure if Fellenberg actually can't be speeded up significantly. I consider Castleton a very flavorful prune plum but what makes it stand out is its reliability- it tends to set fruit in clusters almost like grapes. Some years other plums set little or no fruit but Castleton always seems to have a crop at all sites. It is also a natural semi-dwarf with a wonderful spreading branch habit. My favorite prune plum is Valor because it is very big and has that rich super-sweet quality and it can ripen from the last week of August here until the first hard frost. That is an extremely long picking time even for a prune plum. The reason I recommend Castleton over Valor is because of its consistency at many sites I manage. The funny thing is that at some sites plums are generally much more reliable than other sites for reasons I've never been able to decipher. That means that to really know what is best at your site you'd have to try several varieties and find out yourself but if you're just going to try one I think Castleton is your best bet. ACN carries it but you'd better order ASAP because the commercial growers are sucking it up.

I would agree w/ Hman's comment. Not that I'm trying to bash Stark's, but there are plenty of quality nurseries which give rootstock info. That said, I'm really getting disappointed with Adams. Out of about 150 peach trees I ordered from them in 2012, I've identified 4 trees as being mislabeled. These are trees I've positively identified as mislabeled through bloom or fruit set. In some cases I ordered multiple trees of the same variety and (for example) all the trees had a showy bloom but one (clearly mislabeled). I expect I'll discover more mislabeled trees in the future. In one instance I ordered a flat peach (Galaxy) but the fruit is of a regular peach (pretty easy to tell the difference). I understand mistakes happen, but this is too often to be unintentional unless they have very sloppy procedures. I've talked to one other grower who has seen the same thing (i.e peaches supposed to ripen in a certain window, but ripen much earlier or later - clearly not what he ordered). Will I still order from Adams? Probably, because they always seem to have some unique offerings. But I'll be watching closely to see if what I ordered is actually what I receive.

Growing most fruit from seed is a crap shoot. Peaches usually come close to the parent, or at least something desireable. Most citrus are polyembryonic, which means the seed has multiple embryos, making it possible that you will get the parent tree, or something close. Plums seem to be in the middle ground. Ive read greengage and other yellow/green plums will grow close to the parent. Japanese plums (especially the hardy ones) are usually crossed with the american plum (prunus americana (or prunus nigra/canadiensis)). They wont come too close to the parent tree. THe only way to ensure you get good "black ice" plums, is to get a tree, or at least get some scion. Ive read its possible to graft apricot to some plums (the asian types may do better, but thats a guess), and I think its possible to graft SOME japanese plums to european. I will say also, that you may not have much luck with peaches in s alberta. Ive lived in calgary. The thaw freeze cycles you get will probably make the trunk explode, or make it so you wont have fruit (the three years i was there, we had snow and frost into June. This means before, during and after flowering. THe best advice I can give if you decide to try peach (hell, I am!) is to make sure the trunk stays in the shade all winter, and that the tree stays cold until the threat of frost goes away. Even then its a slim chance, but who knows! You may have luck with "toka". Most sources state zone 3 or 4. Its a red japanese/american hybrid developed in south dakota, so it should be more able to survive the praries :D