Combination plum vs Mount Royal plum tree?

4 years ago

Hi everyone,

I have never grown a plum tree before, so I am hoping that you can give me some advice!

I am in Edmonton, Alberta, which is Zone 3b/4a. I have room in my yard for ONE plum tree, so I was tempted to get the combination one, which has Pembina, Brook Gold and Brook Red all in one. However, I was told that the grafted combination fruit trees may get into trouble with the grafts and may not live as long - is this true please?

Then the other choice is Mount Royal Plum. which is supposedly self-pollinating. If I am going for a plum that is sweet and for fresh eating, is Mount Royal better than the combination anyway? What is your advice please?

P.S. I have lots of cherry trees and crabapples around me, but I am not sure that there are other plum trees in my immediate neighbours' yards....

Thanks in advance!

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FrozeBudd_z3/4

last year

last modified: last year

Ostrich, 'Pembina' has always done very well for me in the past, just too bad that about 15 years ago I went and planted a 'Brook Red' at my new place, it's one of the most challenging to get good pollination upon, even after an expert in plum growing had given me scions to graft he had guaranteed would cross pollinate, mmmm wrong!

A very lovely eating plum is 'Waneta', last year it had its first small crop, the quality is much superior to 'Pembina' or 'Brook Red'. But, the best plums I've ever grown being 'Stanley' and Greengage', the latter especially was just amazing! Those grafts had thrived for about four for five years, just loaded in fruit, THEN one year came along an early October cold snap followed by a hard winter and those large beautiful grafts were all dead as door nails, sigh! .... yeah, I know it was zone pushing, though the winters had been cooperating for several years. 'Mount Royal' had died, the graft had been a bit buried on the tree I had purchased and only seeing this upon planting the thing, I should have returned it, anyways I think it snapped off or something!

I'm now growing a Russian selection of European plum called 'Delicate', here's its description :

The genteel name of this newer Russian selection obviously refers to taste, rather than lack of hardiness as it has proven to be robust enough to survive temperatures lower than -40°in Edmonton, when even the venerable Mont-Royale did not. In many respects, Delicate seems very similar to Mont-Royale. This includes appearance, flavour, ripening time and growth habits. Fruit size, on average, is just slightly smaller. Black Knot has not been seen, although it is likely too early to rule out the possibility entirely. Delicate show great promise for any European plum enthusiast, but especially for those in frigid areas.

SELF-FERTILE | ZONE 2/3 | HARVEST : EARLY SEPT

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Comments (9)

Chinook(4a)
4 years ago
Ostrich, plums in Alberta are a losing battle. My oldest plum trees (10 years) are now all dead. I am in zone 4a very close to 4b, but in the Chinook belt. Those would be a pembina, a multi graft, and a Mount Royal. My pembina died to the ground once before and made it back to 12 ft tall and then died, but has never given me any plums. My multi graft has given me a few pembina(Suck the flesh out(good) as my teeth can not penetrate the skin), a few pipestone (ok), a few brookred (yuck), and a few cherry plums that are inedible. My Mount royal in year 6 gave me 100+ lbs of fabulous fruit. In year 8 it was loaded again, but at no point did they taste good. Year 9 showed that the tree had died and that's why fruit from year 8 never reached it's potential. If you are willing to roll the dice Mount royal would be my choice. Mount royal is definitely self fertile as I had no other European plums blooming in those years.
ostrich thanked Chinook(4a)
ostrich
Original Author
4 years ago
Oh my! Thanks so much!!! I think I will give Mount Royal a try then.... no combination for me! Thanks again.
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sarvat lone
last year
Ostrich your updates
ostrich
Original Author
last year
sarvat lone, I almost missed your post from before! I actually just bought a Mount Royal Plum yesterday! I am hoping to plant it some time this week. I hope that it will be do well as I do not have chinooks here in Edmonton. Let's keep my fingers crossed!!!
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last year
"sarvat lone" looks like another spammer, Ostrich. Best ignored or flagged.
ostrich thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
ostrich
Original Author
last year
floral, I really appreciate your insight! I have no idea... LOL! Thanks!
ostrich
Original Author
last year
WOW, FB, you are just full of amazing information!!! :-) Thanks!

Where can I find a Delicate from please, FB? I have not seen one in any of these big nurseries in Edmonton? Even Mount Royal was kind of hard to come by this year! SO werid.... btw, when you said that the graft was not seen in your Mount Royal and that you should have returned it... can you tell me more about these grafted plum trees please? I just planted a Mountal Royal plum with a graft and then I saw your post!!! OUCH! How are the grafted on going to survive our winters here please? Thanks!
FrozeBudd_z3/4
last year
last modified: last year
Normally, the graft isn't of any much issue, though the 'Mount Royal' I had obtained had been grafted onto an undersized rootstock and the grafted portion of 'Mount Royal' had grown at faster rate and sized up quicker in caliber than the understock creating the graft to be a weak point where the thing had snapped off ... again, normally isn't an issue. Oh, as for winter survival, the trees are grafted onto very hardy stock, don't worry yourself with that! :)

Wiffletree online nursery is where over the last several years I've purchased many things from plums to raspberries and strawberries, the quality is very good, the three plum trees arriving this spring with massive root systems that right from the get go the trees had burst into growth, as compared to many places that butcher the roots to make it easier to fit into the box!