Plum Full

[rocksnstumps]

These are wild plums on the edge of my yard. They're small but every year they load up and I have to mow around the branches until they all fall off (and get mowed) and things spring back up. Some observations on plums:
My yard is mostly all clay and up by my land is mostly sandy loam and they both grow wild there. However for them to produce good amounts of fruit they seem to like a little wet feet or close to it. These yard ones are on the edge of shallow ditch along the property line. The ones on my shallow ridge grow there because there are tons around in roadside ditches which have lots of fruit but up on my ridge they fruit pretty sparse. Lots of blooms but not a lot of production. On my somewhat drier site, the crabapples easily produce 5X more fruit and grow twice as fast. These also ripen and all fall in a week, before Labor Day by me. These are either Canadian or American plums, not sure which. Any observations by others on plums?

 

[deepsleep]

Those are some beautiful plums. After reading some of the old threads from many of the guys on here, I decided to plant some 4-5 years ago. I made a clearing in my woods near the creek probably 1/3 acre and put a bunch in with mesh tubes. The tubes all got thrashed during the rut in yr 1 so we put Combitubes on those that remained. This pic is from early May this year. I'm sure with all the rain they have taken off. In fact, Google Earth just updated images for my area and I can see the plum tops in this thicket now. I have seen some blossoms but don't know if they've had fruit as we don't go in there after June or so. This area grows up with other weeds by fall and I have seen as many as 12 deer go into or come out of this patch of cover. I'm thinking these trees will begin to sucker soon. I have thought about taking the tubes off, but I'm sure the bucks will destroy the trees. Not sure how old they need to be to handle that. Either way, it is already favored cover and I will likely put a few more thickets like this around my property in the next few years.

 

[biglakeba$$]

I checked the plum thickets last weekend and there is next to nothing to pick this year.

We are in very light soils and the water has been very spotty this year. No idea why some years they are loaded and years like this they are non existent.
They definitely didnt have wet feet this year.

 

[SD51555]

These are wild plums on the edge of my yard. They're small but every year they load up and I have to mow around the branches until they all fall off (and get mowed) and things spring back up. Some observations on plums:
My yard is mostly all clay and up by my land is mostly sandy loam and they both grow wild there. However for them to produce good amounts of fruit they seem to like a little wet feet or close to it. These yard ones are on the edge of shallow ditch along the property line. The ones on my shallow ridge grow there because there are tons around in roadside ditches which have lots of fruit but up on my ridge they fruit pretty sparse. Lots of blooms but not a lot of production. On my somewhat drier site, the crabapples easily produce 5X more fruit and grow twice as fast. These also ripen and all fall in a week, before Labor Day by me. These are either Canadian or American plums, not sure which. Any observations by others on plums?

View attachment 6897

We've got plums like that at my dad's. Not sure what they are either. My guess is some kind of plum the FSA office was offering 40 years ago. But same deal. Once they ripen, they all fall in a day or two. I've stumbled on them the day they fell and gobbled up a ton only to realize after about 15 that some had black bugs in them. Oh well, protein.

I've got a small thicket started up north as well. They're just starting to come outta their tubes, and I plan to leave them in there. I grew one back home from 2006 and today is probably 15' tall and the main stem is all of 6' and no branches. I trained it up that way. Still in an exclusion cage to prevent rubbing.

 

[rocksnstumps]

I've got a few trees from 2006 too but nowhere near 6" dia. Actually under 2". Those trees haven't tried to sucker any either. The main one by my yard was a big ole tree back when I moved in 15 years ago and that one has lots of suckering once I stopped mowing next to it. So some other advice might be to plant lots together if you want some denser cover or be prepared to wait 10 yrs or more before you see good suckering to fill in gaps. YMMV on your site however

 

[SD51555]

Edit: 6' of trunk with no branches. I say that in response to whether or not to leave in the tube. I'm a tubes till the end guy.

 

[greyphase]

I dug up 3 plum seedlings at my sister-in-law's farm some years ago that were growing wild.

No clue as to what kind they are but they do develop into an edible plum and have put off several suckers that are growing nicely.

 

[deepsleep]

Those are really impressive seedlings, Greyphase!

 

[chummer]

I planted American plums two years ago. Most are still alive but have put on zero growth in two years despite being in almost full sun. I have given up on them.

 

[chummer]

What nursery/source were they from?

Cold stream. Ironically they were 10x better looking than the crab seedlings I also got from them. The crabs have exploded this year. Of coarse they were in tubes and the plums were not.

 

[bwoods11]

I've got an adundant amount of plums growing this year in MN. Could have been the timely rains?

 

[rocksnstumps]

Very nice plums greyphase. With their size and deep color wonder if in not too distant past some cultivated or garden variety started added diversity to the neighborhood

 

[jaximus]

ive actually collected quite a few plum seeds from my area the past few weeks. i have 800+ wild plum seeds from a couple trees cleaned and dried and already chilling in the fridge. they will be getting the rootmaker treatment this spring. plan is to start in the rm32 and move 3 seedlings each to the 3 gallon pots. that way i get a little clump of roots all held together. might try 2 seedlings in a 1 gallon, but that might be kinda close.

from my understanding on plums, is that if you get the roots established, they are pretty hard to kill. my plan is to get a nice big root ball and let the deer browse them and they will sucker on their own.

also, my area has a pretty decent bear population, have at least 5 different ones on camera and the guy down the road guides bear hunts on his land. fearful that growing a nice big tree will just result is a torn up stump once the bears find it, i would prefer a bunch of more bush type plums anyway.

just hope one of those bears doesnt mingle with my hound before we are ready

 

[CrazyEd]

Great looking plum trees guys! I need to get a few of those going on our property.