A few yeas ago I had a mature Mt. Royal die after an amazingly heavy fruiting year. I'm wondering if for some reason they are slower to harden off after producing a heavy crop of fruit.

That is a good question..worth to keep notes. Perhaps tree got stressed.

When grafting, things get worse...I find most fruit trees need some time off to re-generate, when grafting over a tree it can never take a rest, always one or several cultivars are producing which can make a tree go weak and die...only my theory.

Two trees died on me just this year, a younger one at home, this one had loads for several years, this spring it still looked good, pushed out and I even grafted on it when 2 weeks later I seen it's dying. Not sure what was going on...it almost seems it has something to do with the ground, bad dirt maybe I got when filling in the backyard slope in 1982. That spot has killed 2 trees before, first a apple which had fire blight, but planted another apple beside in the same time, [Collet] and still living today. When the apple died I put a butter nut in it and about 8 years later it died. This other plum died out at the farm which had trunk/freeze injury ...it still produced about another 4 years.

Matt...any of your black ice pits germinated? Found mine in the row today but nothing came out! Looks like I won't be the one making a million bucks lol.

Among my plum seedlings I found a sand cherry in flowers yesterday and potted it up and put on a ladder by the Sapalta 07- 01 graft in flowers in the hopes for pollination, a little late, just about over with the plums.

I have a red americana that's a very heavy bearer, and it's also borderline in ripening ability for us. Based on my experience with this tree, I think there's something to the theory that a heavy crop delays hardening off. The first time it bore heavily was a cool summer; there were 400+ plums on and not one ripened. That winter wasn't particularly severe, but the tree (which had been through much colder winters) was badly damaged. It recovered, and a few years later bore 1,100+ plums, which did barely ripen. Again we didn't have a really cold winter, but most of the tree died. The remnant still bears fruit, and it has resprouted from the roots. I was thinking maybe I should thin in the future, since it seems to be over bearing to its own detriment.

I'm noticing that most of the small plums are yellowing and falling off, whereas maybe a dozen are perhaps 4x the size and growing like gangbusters. Normal?

Very normal Leslie . What kind of plums do you have.

Konrad I'm not sure as plums don't sprout as quickly as apricots. I think I should have some trees very soon. Sometimes it takes a long time like almost another year for plum seeds to sprout. My apricot seeds sprout like weeds and some are ultra hardy now maybe I have the million dollar tree lol

alcan I think black ice is 1/4 sandchery and crossed with a zone 6 plum from California so not to sure how jap plums are for rootstock. I had a big apricot tree on sand cherry roots die and my moms apricot tree I have her on same roots slowly go down hill also. I'm not sure it was the roots or the location that caused them to die as I bought three of those apricots grafted to samdchery stock and one has had fruits hanging on three years in a row now.

Americana doesn't always ripen for me also...don't think thinning will help. What I'm experimenting since last fall is to wrap the trunk with the white row cover and leave it on all year round...helps in summer against sun scalding, done it on some apples and pears also, [instead of white wash].... most will suffer with some degree of trunk damage.

Leslie...very normal on all plums.

Aphids again here in Calgary are causing problems. Dormant oil spray did nothing. Had to spray some oil again today was hoping it wouldnt resort to this

They go straight for pembina and waneta. They literally wipe out branches daily. Heavy fruit set on waneta all over my yard but quickly getting wiped out by aphids.

Anybody have any suggestions ?

No suggestions but I am having a problem with them targeting my toka but leaving my superior alone. I'll definetly be following this if anyone has advice on control measures.

Have you tried this midge? I haven't tried purchasing from them before, but found it interesting: http://www.thebuglady.ca/buying.htm

Found another one: http://www.naturalinsectcontrol.com/subcat.php?cat=5&subcat=4

Saw ladybugs for sale at Golden Acre a couple weeks ago, however heard once released it's hard to keep them around the same area.

Don't release them right away or during the heat of the day.

"After receiving your package of live ladybugs, leave the bag sealed and place them in a refrigerator, or other cool place. This calms ladybugs down from their shipping experience. Early evening is the best time to release ladybugs, and gives them all night to settle in, find food and water, and realize they've found a good home (your garden). Ladybugs are usually thirsty from their long journey and storage, and appreciate moist places to drink. If necessary, sprinkle some water around first before their release. Later on, they'll get most of their moisture needs from eating aphids and other "juicy" plant pests."

http://www.naturescontrol.com/ladybugs.html

Tobacco tea will instantly liquidate them (but any other insects also).

Found out that Prunus Nigra B flowers a little later then Prunus Americana...just in time when most cherry plums flower...or maybe because I grafted it to cherry plums...usually makes no difference on rootstock used....here the Nigra B with cherry plums in the back ground.

Will find out soon how fruit set is, usually these cherry plums get my helping hand with western sand cherry flowers, not this year.

Despite perfect weather conditions the Mt. Royal has set very poorly! It never has been reliable for me as said before...Green Gage has proven to be allot better over at least 10 years.

How has your Mt. Royal set?

Does anyone know anything about Ptitsin plums? I bought two seedlings (Ptitsin #3 and #5) at the U of S fruit sale yesterday. I told the person selling them that I'd never heard of them, and she looked surprised. Bought them and googled it, and found almost nothing.

My Mount Royals (2) have a heavy set. I'm worried though as they are leafing slowly do to spray drift damage from wind changing while neighbors were spaying crops. They are usually very careful.. I've finally got decent pollinator for Brookred and it has a fairly good fruit set, especially on the side next to the little pollinator plum. I just have a sprinkling on the rest which most are just 1 - 3 years in the ground (ptisen #5, Superior, Toka, Waneta, Brookgold, Foffanoff & Grenville plus some of the pollinators) & none on Goldstar, black ice & Petite sour de la mont Royal.

Some of my grafts are starting to show life so very excited. Thank you Konrad! I was slow getting them grafted due to some family health issues.

>>I bought two seedlings (Ptitsin #3 and #5) at the U of S fruit sale yesterday.<<

Now...hopefully not seedlings...seedlings would be offspring's of the mentioned cultivars...perhaps grafted or rooted trees.

Any Ptitsin are good to have, supposedly not hybrid and are good pollinators for hybrid plums. Ptitsin #5 is a good one, freestone and fruit doesn't get soggy like most other Asian plums. I just finished up with grafting plums today.

Thanks Konrad. They are in fact seedlings, which I found weird. The woman standing there said they're naturally somewhat dwarf (think she said 3 smaller than 5). Not exactly sure what to do with it, but it was listed as a good pollinator for brookgold.

OK..good, I'd let them grow a couple of years and then graft some other cultivars onto side limbs..still let some of the original grow to help pollination. Seedlings are always interesting, [all different] and good to have around.

I just got confirmation from someone at U of S that they're clones of pitsin #3 and #5

OK..perhaps tissue cultured or from cuttings or layering... on their own roots which can be good...or not so good if they grow poorly? A lot of times grafted to vigorous root stock is better...especially for our short season.

Absolutely thrilled that my White Damson, Mount Royal, Greengage, Patterson's Pride, and Supreme grafts all seem to have taken. Thanks Konrad. It seems you can never have too many plums LOL.

I found this winter extremely odd. I am not sure what went on but last spring I put in four plums I purchased ( even though I knew I shouldn't). Greengage, Mount Royal, La Crescent, and Waneta. When I planted them I was hesitant of the rootstock so I took scions of them immediately even though they were partially leafed out. I had limited plums to graft them on so I wrapped them securely in parafilm, even the leaves. I put Greengage and Waneta on some Nankings, and La Crescent and Mount Royal on a small p. americana, (Mount Royal did not take) .

All the original trees seem to have succumbed to the winter, although they grew well last summer, but all the scions are doing excellent. Waneta is incredibly vigorous and even blossomed this year (no fruit set).

The original trees are not far from the grafted ones so the winter conditions should have been the same. I was wondering if the Nankings and p. Americana maybe influenced the timing of dormancy on these plums and as a result they were more prepared for the cold weather that came early even though we did not get extremely cold temps deep into winter.

I find purchased trees ..especially when coming from a milder climate have a hard time the first winter or two...best to graft to your own stock.

I like to hedge my bets, I was pretty certain these would be damaged so that is why I got scions from you this spring. I agree totally, my own grafted, although they start out small, seem to catch up pretty fast.

Yep, rootstock plays a huge role in entering and exiting dormancy.

Hi everyone, which cherry plums worthwhile to grow? I have a compass cherry plum but it taste particular good. Was originally use Compass cherry plum for pollination purposes but it blooms too late for any of my plums. I am thinking of grafting different varieties to this Compass cherry plum.

Think you wanted to say particular no good, I don't have Compass. Gypsy & Epsilon is one of the better ones for eating, Manor for processing..oh...the new Sapalta 07-01 seedling from Thean tops them all, sweet, around 18 brix, free stone, known to be hard to pollinate but I had some Sandcherry and Prunus Nigra B flowering and stuck some cuttings into the branches ..seems it has done a fairly good job.

Ah yes thanks Konrad, I meant to say that Compass cherry plum is not good tasting at all... very tasteless and bland. 'They' say compass supposed to be a good pollinator but it bloomed a week too late for my Brookgold and pembina. Compass did set fruits a lot this year probanly it is in sync with my western cherry blooms. Looks like I will be buying some scions from you next year :). 18 brix for the sapalta 07-01 seedling... that is sweet cherries territory!

Just google what the white stuff on my compass cherry plums... it looks like plum pox. Anyone can confirm if plum pox can happen here?

My other plum tree is 5 feet away... should I cut the infected tree right away?

I'm not sure...the rest look in very good health, you might want to cut the individual leaves off but I wouldn't bother at this point if it doesn't get worse.

Wind was around 100km/hour the other day and tons of plums got knocked off...more the larger ones, the Supreme.

Thanks Konrad, I will leave it as is for now and continue to monitor.

Before the huge gust of winds blow into our Calgary backyard.... my daughter picked the last of my Pembina plum lol.

Are you saying they were ready to pick...don't think so, usually around mid August, it's been cool here, don't think Calgary got much more heat.

Nah I am saying my 2 years old daughter pick my last very unripe little plum :) hoping to see my very first pembina plum to the ripen stage. If my daughter did not get to it, I am sure the big gust of wind will knock it off. Oh well next year then.

I thought I was going to have tons of plums on my two plum trees, we had so much rain,cloud and wind that all the tiny plums rotted and turned yellow and fell off. 3 weeks of 24/7 moisture and wind, not good. Maybe next year will be the year I get to taste plums lol

How old is your plum tree Michelle? Are the trees in their 3rd year? i got my plum tree last year

When they get yellow right after fruit set then this is usually a sign of aborting due to other reasons...tree too young, poor or not being pollinated.

This is the trees almost third year planted, I planted them in the fall. Last year I had one plum almost fully mature. This year both plum trees were loaded with tiny green plums. They were doing good until we hit 3 weeks of cloud,rain and wind. Zero sun. Maybe luck will come next year :)

This thread is a fantastic read, thank you to everyone posting all this info. So far this year seems it will be my first to produce plums for me, i have a small number of plums on all my trees (Toka, BrookRed, Fofonoff, Native Canadian, Sandcherry, and Pembina) except my mount royal. I got 3 of my plums from Konrad and it's great to see the crazy production he has. Hopefully the few plums i have will make it all the way to getting ripe.

Great to hear Cody...and joining in!

good to hear how everyone's plums are doing. I will have to live vicariously thru this thread as all my little plums aborted this spring. I didn't expect much as the whips were first year.

Another plum tree died in my back yard..about 15 years old, cut down today with shriveled up plums, might have lost 2 cultivars on this tree..did some emergency graft, will see if any take.

It's always the same it seems...the stem dried up due some problems..could be winter damage/freeze or some borer. Had a shoot from the base and I grafted Methley...this still looks good, seems above ground damage.

Looks like photobucket wants money...I want to ditch them..are you updating?

Might get an Arctic Red plum this year. We'll finally see what it's all about. Other than that, not much. LaCrescent had some plums but looks like they won't make it to maturity - not a variety that gets mentioned much here, any experience? Still waiting on some native plum trees to mature to get the needed pollination.

I am so sorry to hear that my friend, I really hope you can get scion come spring and get those varieties back again.

Plums have been a continual disappointment to me. I'm about ready to chop them all down. I have Opal and Green Gage in the ground, but they don't seem to want to grow. I had a beautiful Toka tree, but it never bore fruit and just up and died a couple of springs back. Ptitsin #5 and Brookgold (I suspect was mislabeled and is really Brookred) will grow and survive the winters OK here -- but they either bloom too early or fruit too late, and are aphid magnets. Frankly, they're not worth the space they take up. I've tried Black Ice about five different times, because I heard it's hardy to zone 3b and fruits earlier in the season. But it always winter kills here. We are supposedly in zone 4 under the newest classification, but I have a hard time believing it. I grow a variety of apples, pears, and sour cherries ... even got a few apricots last year. But I've come to the conclusion that this is just a tough area to try to grow plums.

Douglas, I have a simple theory if plums and grapes were reliable in Edmonton, they would be popular already. The varieties that people recommend are not new. However, it seems some lucky people are doing good with these fruits to keep the legend going lol

What a great page I stumbled across here. I live in Red Deer, AB and am hoping to get some help. I have a Mount Royal Plum Tree and would like to get a pollinator to help it to produce more. What kind do you suggest I plant? Does it have to be a European or can it be a Compass Cherry Plum? If only European, what is the best one for our zone here in AB?

Lindsey, Mount Royal is a fabulous tasting plum. It is hardy to at least zone 3B, but not necessarily fruitful there. My Mount Royal is entering its 8th year and looks like it will be loaded with blossoms this year. Lots of blossoms do not necessarily equal lots of plums. I had a handful of plums in years 3 and 4. I had 100 pounds of plums in year 5(I didn't weigh them but 7 of us gorged on plums for the entire month of September). I had no plums in year 6 and 7. I have other European plums, but none have blossomed yet. My gut feeling is that Mont Royal is self fertile and yield is determined by whether the blossoms survive both winter and our fluctuating spring temperatures. A European plum can only be pollinated by another European plum blooming at the same time.

Mtroyal will self pollinate.... but in my experience needs to be warmer temperatures outside to set fruit with own pollen (This goes for most self pollinating). Mtroyal makes a very high quality plum but it’s about as reliable at fruiting as an apricot tree . My theory is the rootstocks nurseries are using is incorrect and not fully compatible hence the low vigor and low production . I have grafted this variety extensively around my yard and found increased vigor and production grafted onto greengage and Italian on Mariana 2624 roots.

most nurseries have been grafting these onto mustang roots and myrobalan plum. M2624 roots may not be hardy enough for anything colder than southern Alberta but do perform well in my conditions. I will be grafting this strain soon directly onto m2624 roots to see if I can make a better version of the mtroyal