Konrad: yeah Green Gage is great, but maybe too sweet for me, anyway GG is my kids favorite. Very sweet euro plum that comes to my mind is Toptaste., In my country it's popular with people who make home made plum brandy who use it for fermentation. Originally from Germany. In nurseries description they say it has up to 32brix, people usually report around 28brix (it's often compared to candied fruit, therefore too sweet for some ppl likings). Semi cling to freestone (depending on ripening stage), about 40g. Here it's ripening around 8/18-25 (for comparison we are about a week behind Pennsylvania's AC Nursery harvest chart). Not sure about Edmonton and if it's hardy to zone 3. Link: http://www.gartenversandhaus.de/websale7/Pflaume-Toptaste.htm?shopid=chrestensen&act=product&prod_index=P945240

2018 shaping to be a crazy good year for plums. I get them so rarely due to the customary fluctuating Spring temperatures that I have mature plum trees just covered with fruit this year that have never fruited before. It'll be good to try them at long last. The weather in March and April was perfect with cold day after cold day delaying bud progression until the constant warm weather arrived late April. I've done my copper sprays already and will wait to do my curculio and fungal sprays together with the apples once they finish blooming. My Japanese are Shiro, Methley, Bruce, Primavera, Improved Duarte, Satsuma, Santa Rosa, Howard's Miracle and a few other smaller ones. My fruiting European are Empress, Coe's Golden Drop, Autumn Sweet, Pearl, something a nursery labeled as Burbank (a Japanese plum) but clearly isn't and others. Apricots and pluots looking good too.

Howdy Scottsmith, I am not sure just exactly what the molecular DNA constructs are for why salicina's do not like to pollinate themselves, but that is usaully the case. They NEED outside pollen. Their are a few salicina/americana hybrids that WILL be good pollinators, I think Toka, Kaga and South Dakota being a few of them. They may avoid disease for you too, if americanas do well in your area at all. I think Superior is considered a weak pollinizer as well, plus the fruits are supposed to be pretty good. Never tasted them myself, as my only graft of it expired after a year. I have noticed that some of the myro/salicina hybrids are self fertile, which means they would also fertilize the finicky salicina thoroughbreds. Compass is another good pollinator, if a bit on the tart side. Prunus besseyi being in its heritage. Never grown that one, but I bet it is tough tough tough. I have some of these if you cannot get them locally. I generally rely on Santa Rosa, tho, as I really like its taste. Wanna do some trading this winter?

teka2rjleffel, I'm not sure how to answer that. My tea is just part of my feeding/soil improvement program and my roses are putting out new growth pretty constantly. I can't say I see any real spurt of growth after using the tea--I do have a good number of basals on most roses, though. I do the tea once a month. Mid-month I use Miracle Gro alone and Rosetone or Hollytone in the Spring and Summer (it's on tonight's list of things to do), and compost once a year. I don't have enough compost (or manure when I have the time and energy to go get it) to put it around every rose every year, so I rotate. I've experimented this year with adding 10-10-10 in-between on roses I think I might show and those in pots, too--so something pretty much every week on those roses. One reason I feed so heavily is because all of my roses are in raised beds filled with bagged topsoil/composted manure or pots--due to my vole problem, so I feel they need the extra fertilizer. Not sure this helped, Barbara