How did you get Black Ice plum tree into this country?

I know...I'm an impatient person at (all) times!

Konrad, the nursery that has the Ivanovka and Fofonoff is just opening this coming weekend I think. They've had trouble with their plum crop for some reason the last couple of years and neither of those varieties were available last year...so I hope they got it sorted and I can get them this year!

I'll have to see what the larger greenhouses have in stock this spring. They don't usually carry them, but every once in awhile an interesting tree will show up.

There was frost on the ground this morning on the farm...with plums in flower! Will find out in about 2 weeks what fruit set we got. I also find out, [first time this year] that Nigra from Tony and Bernie flower later, could be the same plum, [just starting now] perhaps will overlap a little. The prunus Americana started about 3 days earlier. For what I've been hearing, any Ptitsin is good for pollination also,..been grafting some of these in also,..think I have the #5, these seem to have the largest most beautiful plum flowers I've seen,..but the earliest to open!

Glad you had reminded me, as Tony had mentioned that Pftsten #5 is a very good plum and also useful for pollinating 'Brook Red' ... do you know where Pftsten #5 might be available in Edmonton?

So, prunus Americana is a good match for pollinating 'Brook Red' ? I wish I would have spoken with you regarding such and taken a few scions home.

Frost here yet again this morning, though just on the west side of the house ... I "think" that we're now in the clear regarding very chilly mornings, at least I hope so!

Garden centers are loaded with ptitsen 5 this year. Bylands made tons and there is bigger 1.5" thick trees for $100 each at two garden centers here. I am to crammed for another early blooming plum. If I make room it will be for something special. But I really want some ptitsen wood for grafting.

Guys I kept my nigra in a pot.i moved it between the brookred and brookgold and toka and waneta. It was going to bloom before the others so I had to shade it and I was overlapping all trees perfect. The pot heats up way quicker than the ground. The nigra is still blooming a bit (few flowers left) I was able to put it inside all 4 trees canopy and looking today on the brooks I see some pea sized plums that have shed the shucks. It looks like wante and toka enjoyed its presence inches away.

These hybrid plums will survive minus 5 in full bloom and even after a bit. Not to many were even damaged after further investigation I cut a few open and they were still good. Not like my apricots.

Anybody can import from USA .I also have been buying and selling high end freshwater fish for last many years and it's same process . Have to deal with Canada customs . Permits maybe required. Black ice was the most attractive of all plums to me .i love black plums they are hands down the best fruit if really ripe.i don't expect black ice to be that good but apparently it's good.who knows ? I got 3 decent sized trees might only have room for 2 unless I remove and apricot .

Best hybrid plum pollinator is toka because it's not actually a jap plum it's a native apricot plum mixed with a Americana plum . most of our hybrids are prunus nigra not prunus Americana I think this helps a lot plus you get bubblegum plums which to me are best tasting red plums I've had and they are super hardy . I think it gets the flavour from being the apricot /plum

No idea Terry where the Ptitsin #5 is to be found in Edmonton. Hopefully I'll get some grafts going again with the wood from the dead tree and have some for the next scion wood exchange. If not, then I have to buy a tree. [don't like it because it might not be the same] Need about another 2 weeks to find out if grafts took. I thought you got some Americana from me last year, got a tree and is in full bloom now and will overlap some others. It has attractive flowers and bees really like it. The grafted Nigra from last year might open today or tomorrow. The cherry plums just starting to open today I think, not sure if Nigra will pollinate them, ...been hearing the sand cherry is best. Terry, not sure about the Brooks with Americana, my two brooks, red & gold been grafted mostly over, gave up many years ago in pollinating these,..but then I didn't have that many. I might be grafting some into other trees in the future to see if pollination can be better that way, [but need to find the right cultivar first].

any nursery in Edmonton that has by lands trees will get ptitsen#5 this year I'm sure. Last year they were even at Canadian tire stores. Greengate and spruce it up in calgary have real nice ptisten 5 trees that are bigger probably five year old trees for $100 each. Home Depot has massive Italian plums right now and on sale for $29 . Can't beat it. They send the zone 4 trees a lot around where I live and okotoks location . I did look at the homedepot norths and they had brooksgold Evans Juliet for $29 and they would be $100 at any garden center.

And I am certain if you guys get greengage to survive up north where it stays consistently cold ,not warm and cold than all of the sudden hot than really cold all winter long like calgary and south alberta does you'd have no problem with the Italian that I have. It fruited the first year here for me than after that I learned a few lessons on to much "juice" for it to late in the season lol. It still survived that abuse and through last winter which was killer cold and had minimal dieback.mine are planted in the sunniest crappiest spot I could have put them and they take that abuse. I would not right this one off konrad. For $29 you should try one in a strategic location some are 2" thick and 9' tall. They call where I live zone 4 but it's more like zone 3 and 4 depending on the day and week lol.

There is two strains late and early the one I have is very late the fruit was tree ripe in September taste real good exact same as store bought except I let it get ripe on the tree .looks like I might get a few plums on it this year also.

Ptitsin #5 is usually the most common plug sold at the U of S. Even when they sell out of everything it is usually the last to be cleaned out because of the number they have available. I'm hoping the university gets their butts in gear and posts a list of what is available soon. They are behind this year.

Konrad, I've also been reworking my 'Brook Red' over, I think it's a darn difficult one to pollinate because it flowers ahead of others ... though, as Mattpf's had commented, I'm hopeful 'Toka' shall be the answer to that. I believe I did get some Americana from you last year and placed it on a dominate top branch, it's flowering now, a bit too late for 'Brook Red', though maybe it'll become somewhat earlier as the branch matures. But, anyways, I've been grafting lots of varieties onto my 'Brook Red' such as 'Greengage' and 'Mount Royal' both of which "should" give a few fruit this year.

Okay, I'll be on the lookout for 'Pifitsen #5' while I make the rounds in the coming days.

It looks like I have some pea sized fruits on my brook red now :) now I just need them to hang on. I've never had any set like this on brookred before .i pot trained the prunus nigra to open up at the same time as the brooks and toka .so far so good.

I was told by a orchard owner/manager in bc last year because the brooks plums bloom so heavy to heavily prune the trees.i pruned out about 20% of each tree gave them a good shot of fertilizer in February mixed in the soil and when they woke up it was warm dry and 5 trees were open at the same and there was lots of bees.

Now my luck it will be a crappy june most of the fruits will fall off because it will be cold than what survives will get destroyed by hail in July lol.

Toka appears to be most loaded with small pea sized fruits .

Brookgold also has lots of small fruits forming and a few are already bigger than peas.

Brookred has a few also and looks like it actually set some fruit.

Hotter than plus 30 in my yard the last few days. Hottest may temps I've ever had in 30 years in south Calgary. Temp right now in a shady part of my deck ,the thermometer in the sun is a lot hotter . I'm not sure how much I should water in this heat I've been doing a light water daily or every second day.

So I got no flowers at all on my mt Royal and not a bit of die back. Tree is hardy all right ,last year it flowered like crazy.

One of my italian plums shot out over 50 flowers on a few branches .but it dies back some winters? It's strange the less hardy plum did better than the mtroyal. Mtroyal is in my front yard North shaded a bit and grows slow. It's well hardend off every year. The Italian gets abused by sun and me in the back yard lol and flowers. Hopefully I have a few plums hanging on it this year.

How did everybody else's plums do?

Hey Mattpf, thanks for the heads up on Canadian Tire having 'Pfitsen #5, I got a nice one for $59.00, similar trees were more than double the price at the leading greenhouses, OUCH!

Okay, I think I have some decent pollination on my 'Brook Red', though maybe a bit too early to tell, but some are definitely forming and pollination will only get better in the years to come.

So far it appears that I've only had 50% success with my grafting, I just didn't have the correct knife or tool on hand to spilt the branches while cleft grafting, I was sooo frustrated that day and cursed my grafting abilities, lol ... but, at least I did get a few more 'Greengage' to catch. Last year, I had about 85% success in comparison.

Good to hear...did your Greengage flower? With hardly any freeze back on mine it hasn't flowered much,...perhaps the off year, not sure how many have set but don't expect more then a dozen. Some others have set, ..like the green little plum you cut off, Supreme..rest I don't know yet.

Don't feel bad about your grafting. I learned how to graft my thumb back togather lol

I use a Olfa laser sharp knife when I whip and to be graft I cut towards my left thumb. Well I split the wood went into my thumb about enough to need stitches but I dip the blade in bleach water every cut so blade was real clean I just taped it up and had to take a few days off grafting. It was a good cut on my thumb...........anyways few days passed I was itching to graft more so I was doing the exact same thing only with a piece of tape wrapped around my left thumb. Well for the first time in my life I cut open a freshly wounded cut. Exact same whip and to be graft slipped and sunk the blade right back into the thumb I cut only a few days before and pretty much sunk it right into the same healing wound ouch. So this made me take a week off grafting till it healed up good lol.

One tip about olfa knifes and any razor utility knifes. I've worked construction my entire life and know they use oil to manufacture these blades. Olfa knifes come very oiled and if you cut yourself with one that's oily it takes longer for the wound to heal "I know from many cuts lol" ......make sure you guys really clean the oil off these blades for grafting. It takes a run of real hot water and soap than wipe t good with paper towel or something absorbent. This oil on the blades will 100% contaminate any graft you try. Most of you know this but it's a simple tip that may help you be more successful grafting.

What canadian tire did you get the ptitsen at? I am looking for ptitsen but refuse to pay $100 for a tree unless it's something rare or I really need.

My brookred has a few (maybe a dozen)plums about size of dimes and nickels hanging on . I don't think brookred is a prolific producer .dont waste your time with it .mine has been in ground long enough and this year I turned it into a Frankenstein tree. It has dozen of differnt variety growing on it now :)

Costco has nice virus free plum trees I bought pipestone $29 would be $100 at garden center and not virus free ,they also had lots of nice pembina and waneta my favorite . I'd recommend waneta as the best hybrid plum .i put mine in two years ago the first year it set lots of fruit but dropped them. This year pretty much every flower turned into a pea size plum. Brookred and brookgold are a joke compared to it. I am contemplating buying another waneta. I did put tons of waneta on my brooks this year even the grafts are prolific they flowered weeks after I grafted them and look like they even set fruit but I prevented the grafts from doing so to save energy for growth this year and next year they can make fruits,waneta is a nice grade plum and has been said to be best plum for any northern growers by a lot of American reviews online.

If you get the first year grafts to produce fruits you deserve a metal.

I planted a Pembina plum years ago...next door neighbour was supposed to plant another plum but she moved away before that happened. There must be a plum in the area because every year my tree produces a handful of plums - this year it's loaded with tiny fruit but we'll see if they fully develop. Could it be pollinated from the Nanking cherry or Evans cherry in my yard?

Not Evans but Nanking,..did they overlap?

I think they were in bloom at the same time...so it could be the Nanking all this time? I thought it was plums from another yard. I only have the one Nanking so never got more than a few cherries from it over the years (have no idea what pollinated it).

picked up another nice waneta from Costco. If anybody is around alberta costco in okotoks has some decent sized waneta and pipestone for $29 each. The are virus free trees and look very good. We always talk about how prolific pembina plum can be but if you read reviews waneta ranks highest for prarie hybrid plums. My waneta blooms about 6-10 later than the brooks plums but the toka overlapped all of those trees and I'm sure that's what pollinated my waneta. This tree produces the first year after planting and the grafts I did of it are almost doing it the first year I grafted them.

Mattpf, good point about thoroughly cleaning the blades to remove possible oils, I have I always paid particular attention to doing so. I cringed when reading of your self inflicted cuttings, OUCH! My thumbs were cut up by the time I done and some blood had been shed. Good new is that more of my grafts have come to life. But, I had been wrong about what I had thought was a decent set upon the 'Brook Red' ... but, for next year will have several more pollinator branches and 'Toka' and 'Pfitsen #5' nearby. 'Waneta' sounds like one to get ... though, am running out of space for another tree and just might have to bum some bud or scion wood.

Konrad, what I had thought was 'Greengage' might instead be the 'Peach Plum', but time will soon tell.

They have waneta at Costco for $29. I put about a dozen waneta branches on my brookred and it's so prolific even from scion they flower heavily first year and even look like they could set fruit .some of mine might actually have if I let it. Again this next spring I will redo the brookred even more with waneta .i did get some fruit set on my brookred there is a dozen or so the size of quarters hanging on still .my brookred had been in ground long enough it would be a shame to remove so I just reworked the heck out of it. Mine was exposed to toka brookgold and prunus nigra pollen all are said to pollinate it. I even hand pollinated with nanking and that doesn't work. So cross nanking off the list for that tree. The toka is 25ft away the brook gold is right next to it and my nigra is potted so it was right in the canopy of brookred and I am sure this is probably what did the trick. But the fruit set is far from prolific even with a native plum .waneta set almost every flower its like my Evans cherry lol.

My opinion ..... waneta is a must have for anybody in zone 3.

Some just don't want to stick,..for me, the most reliable setting plum in the past is Supreme, self thinning, not overly loaded, that's why I think it can set annually. Pembina, similar to Supreme but prone to crack..lost the branch with the death of the tree, [will not replace since Supreme is better]. Ptitsin #5, good setting good plum..lost also on the same tree,..got some scion wood going, the little green plum from Tony hangs on like cherries the second year now, Sprouts sunshine is setting reliable too,.Patterson's Pride set two years in a row....sometimes it takes a long time to set.

Yah brookred has a dozen or so plums a gave the tree a very light shake to get some ants to climb down and 3 plums size of quarters fell off. They were looking like they were not going to hang on much longer. In my opinion brookred is not even a fruit tree. It's a flowering decoration tree and should not be sold as an edible as I've not been able to find one single photo of brookred fruit online and this is the most commonly sold plum in calgary. It's pathetic. I redone a bunch of branches but might just cut it right down next spring and start fresh I am wasting my time. Brookgold is more promising some of its fruits are getting fairly big and this is the first year production and I never had another japanese plum to pollinate it. Next year will only get better. I need one more japanese plum to complete my yard what do you suggest konrad? i did try a shiro plum few years ago and it died right to the roots. The stock was not hardy at all. I need another good hardy one? Any recommendation ?

Hard to day..have you tried Fofonoff, also known as Homesteader.

It's hard to find.

Or Patterson Pride ..this one seems to have set fruit the most for me this season.
Fofonoff still seems to be VERY stubborn to set fruit, similar to Brooks.

The VERY worst of all plums and never seen a single fruit is Dandy..about 8 years in the ground and flowering for many years, bees like it, grows amongst all others but..nothing! Whats's going on,.. got it from Boughen Sask. nursery. Any of you grow this one?

I think the guy at Over the Hill has Dandy in his plum plot. I know for sure he has Homesteader. I have a Paterson Pride and the base keeps overtaking the graft. I don't expect the plant to live much longer because of it. I think it isn't very vigorous for the root stock.

Will that cause the tree to die?

It happens allot that root suckers comes up and overtakes because it's the more vigorous of both,..these suckers need to be pruned off.

How is the fruit off Paterson pride plum? I've heard they taste like a nectarine ? Is this possible

I let one root sucker grow all year usually and graft it to an upper branch in the spring. Never know what you'll get. Some of my trees are from usa so who knows. They use Mariana 2624 a lot. I've never been successful with cuttings ,apparently most plum rootstocks will root from cuttings. I must not being doing it properly or something.

try misting your cuttings with willow bark tea

Really. I tried rooting hormone

Most are cloned by tissue I think,
layering seems to work sometimes, graft low first and root by bending over the branch, weight down with a rock.

I had a lot higher percentage willow tea vs root hormone even willow tea vs dissolved ASA. I have also used the method Konrad mentioned putting a small cut in the bark adding root hormone and then the rock

Well I have one mt Royal that suckers huge and the leafs look like a wild plum. I have kept some of its cuttings in the fridge alive with a bit of water .used a bit of root hormone but no roots yet and they been in fridge for a month.

Got it from parkland nursery in red deer few years ago. Wondering what rootstock they would have used ?

They probably bring in plants and don't even know when asked, did that one's with http://www.mrvs.net when I bought a Muckle plum, he said the
root is Nanking,..a year later shoots came up but it wasn't, it is plum root.
These roots I first thought was Muckle..grafted a bunch onto Nanking and now have plums! If the roots had been Nanking then it would have been obvious, plum root sucker leaves and Muckle are very similar. I'll have to start over again next year, this year I'll try to root them from layering,..better to have them on their own root anyway, surprised why they weren't in the first place, ..it might take too long to get them to grow to a marketable size,.. all about a quick buck!

I bought an apple tree from them they had no Idea what rootstock.Seller of trees not a grower

The good news is this is the first year of decent fruit set on my plum. The bad news we had our first shower of the year which had hail in it. About a third of the plum drupes came off. We are supposed to have storms today and tomorrow as well. I hope I have still have something left over by Monday.

There will be more hail to come just wait. I'm lucky the storms did not drop any here yet.

Next year will be a good year for me the trees are finally accepting pollen and this is first year I got fruit on my hybrid plums.