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"Ember. Late Summer. (Prunus salicina Shiro x P. americana var) 1936... red-blushed fruit...Rich yellow juicy sweet flesh is very firm and meaty but tender.... Tastes and looks like an apricot...
La Crescent. Late Summer. (Prunus salicina Shiro x P. americana Howard Yellow) 1923.... thin-skinned yellow fruit is sometimes blushed with a little pink. Tender yellow juicy fle...aromatic and suggestive of apricots...
South Dakota. Late Summer. SD 27. Prunus americana unknown parentage. 1949... tough yellow skin with bright red blush. Medium-firm yellow flesh is meaty, juicy, sweet... very long flowering period... pollinator for all hybrid plums...developed before 1907.
Hanska. Summer. (Prunus americana x P. simonii) 1908. Medium-sized bright red fruit with a heavy bluish bloom. Firm fragrant yellow semi-freestone flesh. When cooked, the fruit has a strong apricot-like flavor reminiscent of its Chinese “apricot plum” parentage. "
All info is from the Fedco catalog, edited for brevity. It seems like a lot. On the other hand, how much does 1 plum, or 1 apple, cost at the grocery store? Each scion is $5. If these take, each grafted branch can give a couple dozen a year, for potentially many years. They are intended to give a diversity of size, shape, flavor, color, and ripening times. The main trend here is 3 with apricot flavor. I hope they are much more adaptable to this area, compared to apricots. Toka has some of that too.
You got a point there. Scion is affordable and often it can fruit within the same yr. Or send for expensive fruit basket with special variety in the mail. I can't wait for time to graft. Trees are not dormant yet and its been raining everyday. Gingko tree just turning yellow right now.
ReplyDeleteLance, you are right, much more affordable! $5 for a scion, but for a tree - $30s, $40s depending on how large, with tax and shipping. Scion are much cheaper to ship, too. If you create a multivariety "bouquet" tree, it takes up much less room than separate trees for each variety, and gives you a longer yield than a single tree of a particular variety.
ReplyDeleteI am not an expert grafter, so there are many chances of failure of course. This year went really well, which gives me optimism. Also anxious to see if the T-budding worked. They wait for the Spring to grow, so I don't know if they are alive.
The wind is so strong here in Spring. I wonder if pollinating insects can fly from tree to tree. Having pollinating varieties within the same multigraft tree might give better fruit-set success. I would like it if the Shiro and Prunus cerasifera grafts, that grew 3 ft, bloom this spring. The Hollywood plum grafts are still at bud stage, exept two that grow about 2 inches each. A lot to ask for them to bloom. Those are on an unknown plum or plumcot understock, vigorous tree but minimal bearing so far. Time will tell!
Your ginkgo held on to leaves a month longer than mine! That should help them photosynthesize longer, store more nutrients, and I hope get a boost in Spring!
I am equally excited about grafting. I can't wait either.