Hello Glenn, see if it works now, ...didn't know I was not in, sometime ago gardenweb cleaned up everything. Still....it doesn't' allow me to send myself's mail to check it out. The square is klicked now to... >> Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site.I'll give you a PM with address and discuss this private.

Thank you Mrs. G I think, overall your'e in a better position to grow plums. The winters here are so unpredictable with such low temp. that flower buds get killed, especially on tender varieties, like Greengage and other European plums. Then spring frost is another thing, when the stars all line up it might happen that one's in 3 to 5 years average to get a good mother load. Some of these picture with this many plums might only come one's in a lifetime. What happens also, branches die back and one has to graft constantly, not something I'll do forever, this plum thread shows, if you put your mind to it, it can be done. I think what happens at fruit set,..after the tree rested for years, it has enough reserves that it can hold allot of fruits. The good thing here in the far north, we don't have to deal with the bugs and disease like most growers in warmer climates are facing, so I don't have to spry anything on fruit trees. Not much bird problems either. With a milder winter then usual, all looks good again for another good year, plums are flowering now but we're still not out of the woods, the next 2 weeks are still crucial, frost can still knock these flowers off.

The introducer of Castleton, Prof. Robert Andersen, Stone Fruits Breeder at the USDA-ARS Clonal Germplasm facility/Cornell at Geneva, NY, was a beloved and deeply respected teacher of mine, now sorely missed! There were several other prune-plums of the 66 series, meaning pollinated in the year 1966, that seemed also exceptional (to me) but were never released. Rosy Gauge is another release from the same program and I have a plant along with the Geneva Green Gage. One interesting fact I have noticed is that woodchucks will climb more than 6 feet up a welded -wire mesh enclosure surrounding these 2 varieties and then climb down INSIDE the wire cylinders wrapped around the plants to fend off deer. So much do they love the taste of the leaves and shoots! A revelation for me, living in a critter-infested yard, where I have given up growing anything. Another fun fact: Toka is extremely vigorous, the most vigorous plum I have, AND also very distasteful to deer that will graze everything [ especially my Stacey and Nova pears] to the bone left and right of the Toka, leaving it with only a few nibbles!!Slim fawns will flatten and insinuate their precious selves UNDER deer fencing to get at apple and pear leaves, when scores of acres of Cornell alfalfa, maize, and the entire Cornell Arboretum lie not 50 yards away! Why? There are other mysteries re: deer food preferences/wild & cultivated species of the Rosaceae that completely blow my mind. Konrad, thanks for your great inputs. I used to live in Logan, UT, a Zone 4 a & b climate, depending on location. Green Gage was excellent there, but never very high-yielding; I am envious of the grower who harvested 5-gallon bucketsful of GGs! For those who are so minded, please do visit the Cornell-Geneva Stone Fruits collection on a balmy day. It is situated in a remarkably beautiful location, with a lovely pond in the middle, next to a grove of wonderful apricot trees, part of the small collection. Nowadays, things have become more formal for visitors, since newer faces have taken charge. Not so in our times! We are told it is because of security issues since 9/11, when huge fences were erected all around the clonal repositories, the apple collection, etc. and admission + access severely restricted. Who knows what they were thinking! However, these repositories [and indeed ALL Land Grant Universities] are funded by CITIZEN dollars, and all US citizens have the right to request reasonable amounts of FREE propagating materials OR propagules for personal use from the USDA-ARS. That is expressly mentioned in the mandate for these repositories.

You welcome! Great to hear. Also many thanks for the M360 and Jostaberry,...all doing good. Picture from today.