Chris McMullins

Manchurians may end up being the ticket as it sounds as though many of them are early as compared with most hybrid plums.

Thanks Russell.

I have a Toka currently that keeps dying back. Last year it only got to about two feet high before fall. I'm thinking it won't be with me much longer. Unfortunately there have been others in my area with the same sorts of experiences. It would appear that zone 3 South Central Alaska is not the same as zone three other places where the plant breeding and selection is actually taking place.

I feel the same way about seedlings. After all, named cultivars began as seedlings of one sort or another. If one had the space, the grower could do his own selection and thereby come up with cultivars adapted to his own locality. Regional cultivars!

Thanks Dan.

Plums in Alaska are not unheard of. Interior Alaska, though colder has more heat to offer during the growing season and so has a little more potential for success. The Pan Handle, though not warm, has a long frost free period with very mild winters.

Throw in freeze thaw cycles during our winters (40 degrees F today, -30 degrees below zero in a few days)and things can get pretty rough for all but the hardiest or best adapted fruit crops for my area.

I have heard of people being successful with plums in the Matsu Valley (where I live), but so far no one has been able to put me in contact with them or have been able to tell me what they were growing. Mostly I hear stories of failure (and not too many of those), or isolated stories of success in Anchorage (a good bit warmer in the winter there).

I have just gotten in contact with the Alaskan fellow and he informed me that he has several varieties, most of which barely ripen for him in the interior. A few he says are earlier and may be possible for Wasilla. He's offered scion wood and I think I will take him up on it.

None the less, I'm still hoping for that lucky seedling!

I'm new to the forum so I'm not sure if requests are considered cooth or not.

Just a little background: I very recently started an orchard in a difficult climatic zone. It's firmly zone 3 with short and cool summers. Early season apples on the right root stock perform well. Sour cherries are somewhat hit and miss. Plums... well plums have proven quite difficult. Most varieties are not hardy or will not ripen in my area. I have three seedling species plums that have yet to blossom but have proven hardy to the tips. It remains to be seen if my season will allow their fruit to ripen.

What I am hoping to locate is someone who is currently growing the plum "Black Ice" or some other very early plum that is pretty hardy, who also keeps very hardy native plums such as prunus americana or prunus nigra as pollinators. The theory is that by sowing seeds from the early plum pollinated thus, a certain portion of them may keep the very early ripening characteristics along with the additional hardiness of the native plum.

I'm not sure if anyone out there is able to help, or if anyone knows of a likely variety already existent that is both very hardy AND very early AND available in the US, but I would be grateful for any assistance.

BTW I am willing to pay for the seeds and their shipping. I don't wish to impose...

Thanks to all ahead of time.