Plums
I’m just learning about plums. I bought one in 2011. In 2013 I bought two more types. Now we have 4 types. I've yet to eat plums.
Plums tend to be small trees, typically about 15 feet tall and 10 feet across. Most start bearing at age 6.
European plums are usually self fertile. Asian and North American plums neet two varieties. Worse the hybrid plums usually have sterile pollen. So to get plums you need a pollenator:
The players:
- An american plum. One that is a cultivar of Prunus niger (Canadian Wild Plum) or Prunus americana (American Wild plum). American/Canadian plum pollenates everything.
- A western sandcherry that blooms at the same time will work too. Sandcherries tend to bloom even earlier than plums. Put the sandcherry where the snow drifts and spring comes late, and train to to a bush form. weigh down some branches so that some of the buds will be under the snow. This spreads out the blooming season. Light shade will also help lengthen the blooming season.
- Japanese plum (one that is a cultivar of Prunus salicina) will pollenate a wild plum or another japanese plum.
- Toka plum is close enough to a wild plum it will pollenate most plums.
- Hybrid plums won't pollenate anything. (Pollen is sterile.)
We carry five plums right now:
Brookgold Zone 2. Fruit is yellow/gold with a greenish tinge, 2.5-3 cm. Tender skin. Very sweet. Good fresh, fair for canning. Flesh is yellow. Ripens in late August. Freestone. It is an Asian plum, and will pollenate other asians, and possibly asian/american hybrids.
Brookred Zone 3a. Dusky pink/red skin. Juicy, but firm, nice mix of tart and sweet. Freestone. Peel is quite tart. Eat them up. Not a good keeper. About the size of a pool ball, deep red. Trees leaves go red in fall too.
Toka Round red fruit, about pingpong ball sized. Reasonably good pollinator for both Asian and hybrid plums.
Tecumseh Zone 3a Bright red, bluish bloom with yellow fruit. Fruit about 3.5 cm. Good canning, jams. Mid August ripening. Consistent harvest from year to year. Hybrid
Pembina Zone 2. Small Red/dark pink fruit with a white blush. Flesh is yellow. Skin is acidic and thick; but the fruit is slip-skinned. Bite a hole in the skin, squeeze out the interior into your mouth. For jam, you may want to add some of the skin back in, if you like the slightly bitter flavour of marmalade. Fruit is semi-freestone. Mid august harvest. Tends to bear heavily in alternate years. Pembina is a hybrid plum.
American Wild Plum
Canadian Wild Plum
These two are the most reliable pollinators for plums.
Inventory tables are double rows to make them usable on small screens.
Common name and container in column 1.
Count is how many we think we have left. Price is per tree.
Height will be there next year, we hope.
Food -- Plum
| Common Name Container |
Count Price |
Height (feet) |
|
| Plum, Brookgold #10 Growbag (42 qt) |
2 $120.00 |
||
| Plum, Brookred #10 Growbag (42 qt) |
3 $120.00 |
||
| Plum, Mount Royal #7 Std pot (21 qt) |
6 $60.00 |
||
| Plum, Pembina #10 Growbag (42 qt) |
2 $60.00 |
||
| Plum, Pembina #8 Std pot (24 qt) |
6 $100.00 |
||
| Plum, Toka #10 Std pot (30 qt) |
10 $120.00 |
||
| Plum, Warburg Wild Plum #10 Growbag (42 qt) |
1 $80.00 |
||
| Last Update: 2024-Jan-21 | |||
For further reading:
Pollination Studies with Stone Fruit by W. H. Alderman and C.S. Weir. December 1951.
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