Never heard of that. Maybe they are using Citation? It has red leaves. I have read claims that Citation dwarfs by 1/2 but in my orchard it barely dwarfs at all. It is very precocious however.

Scott

Red leaf plum, they are using Myrobalan for rootstock. It's not a dwarfing roostock, I believe it is a standard size of about 15 ft. Cummins uses Myro on all their plums.

Best: Superior is a mid August ripening plum, fruits second year, excellent flavor.

Ace, my myrobalan rootstocks (from Cummins) have no red leaves.

Scott

Scott, Myrobalan root stocks are vegetatively propagated, and some are grown from seed, maybe yours are crossed differently.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prunus cerasifera

Ace, those red-leaf varieties are ornamental kinds, the normal myro is green-leafed. My next guess after citation would not by myro, it would be sand cherry, which also has some red-leafed variants and is considered dwarfing (but in my experience I would say "barely dwarfing").

Scott

Scott, I called Starks, they use Marianna or red leaf peach on their dwarf plums. Marianna is a Myrobalan x native American plum. Red leaf peach root stock Starks uses is probably Citation, good guess.

So, will it dwarf to 8-10 ft. like they claim?

And is Superior the best of the list:Superior, Methley, Ozark Premier, Redheart?

Ramble, the way you dwarf a plum is with pruners. All my plums are no taller than 8' whatever rootstock they are on, because that is as high as I can reach my pruners and everything gets topped. I buzz cut them twice in the summer and I prune to open them up in the winter. If I didn't prune, even my "dwarf" plums would be 15-18' by now, they are incredibly vigorous. I would say a plum on these "dwarfing" stocks is much more vigorous than an apple on say MM111 or other large-size apple rootstock.

I would vote for Superior but also like Red Heart.

Scott

ramble, Marianna and citation will not dwarf those plums to 8 - 10 ft. My Starks dwarf plumcot 'Spring Satin' is already 9' tall the first season. But, they can be held to any size with pruning. What size is your planting area? You could grow those four plums easily in a 15' X 15' full sun area. Select varieties that ripen 2 weeks apart over the summer.

Citation does have beautiful red leaves in the spring. It came off patent 2 years ago and there are now quite a few nurseries throughout the country offering it. I agree that Citation as a semi-dwarf(growing to some convenient size and stopping)is a stretch as it is vigorous and grows just a percentage smaller(65-70%)than trees grown on standard stock.

I believe one should select,as best you can,rootstocks based on hardiness first then soil and disease or pest concerns. This will improve the success of your fruit tree planting.

Citation is cold hardy but it does not like dramatic flucuateing spring temperatures. It does tolerate poor draing soils but will stunt if it goes dry. Related, it seems to love climates with high humidity. Citation likes lots of mulch.

Last I agree with pruning as the primary means of dwarfing. With pruning you can hold any tree to any size.

I didn't like Ozark Premier. Loaded with fruit but the taste didn't measure up to Redheart planted right beside it. The taste was bland. Plus the Japanese Beetles singled it out as their favorite. OP is more of a spreading grower whereas Redheart is upright.

jerry43, I just planted an Ozark Premier upstate NY. Do you think the blandness was over set and defoliation.

No, I've had but a few plums on the Ozark in years past with frost and they still taste the same. I kept the tree free of beetles with a very dilute spray of Sevin. I'm sure there are many people who would love the taste of Ozark which is mild and not as sweet compared to many plums. I like the intense flavor that Redheart has, you open one up and the aroma is great and it is very sweet to the taste. I finally cut down the tree since my family hardly ate any of them when we had others to eat.

If you are thinking about Ozark Premier, read what Johnson Nursery says about AU Roadside:

AU Roadside
An Auburn Univ. hybrid, AU Roadside has high yields of excellent quality fruit with red skin and flesh. Bred from Ozark Premier yet is superior in yield, fruit quality, tree vigor, disease resistance and tree longevity. It is highly resistant to black knot, bacterial canker, and bacterial fruit and leaf spot.
Self-pollinating. Zones 5-7.

I may get me one of these next spring (I already have Superior and Redheart, plus many others).

Scott

Thanks scott, AU Roadside is not in Johnsons current catalog but I called them and they'll ship one in March with the others.