You should get Elephant heart plum. I have bought them at the farmarkets, and I have like them. They taste similar to flavor king pluots, very juicy, very dark red flesh. Ripens late August.

I have a Mariposa plum at home: tastes similar to dapple dandy pluot, red fleshed, not as juicy as elephant heart but sweeter than most plums, fruit doesn't keep firm after two days of harvesting. Ripens late August.

The tree is is very low chill, less than 250 hours, blooms late Jan to early Feb-- flowers are very susceptible to late frosts. and very extremely susceptible to pest like aphids. Fruits need 100 degree plus weather for the fruit to ripen.

You need to tell us where you live. elephant heart does poorly for me in Maryland. It gets shot hole badly and does not set well. Mariposa is better.

Scott

I Live In Greenville SC. But after theweatherman description about the Elephant Heart I have to go with that Plum. I want a plum that taste good and keeps long. I'm also interested in adding the Kelsey Plum to my collection but I don't have a lot of info on it besides what's on Dave Wilson website. It's a beautiful firm plum though. Thanks for your help.

Steve, the weatherman is in California. California is a different world from South Carolina as far as growing plums goes. I also forgot to mention it rots like crazy. My tree is ten years old and I have yet to have a single ripe plum off of it.

Scott

Yeah I know the plan was to spray the trees. I have been researching fungicides and Bonide sprays. Even though its not the best area I still want to give it a shot. My trees so far are doing good but my Pluot trees and elephant heart plum tree doesn't come in until spring 2014

Quoting scott:

"Steve, the weatherman is in California. California is a different world from South Carolina as far as growing plums goes. I also forgot to mention it rots like crazy. My tree is ten years old and I have yet to have a single ripe plum off of it. "

My elevation is 2826 above sea level, USDA zone 8B (Adelanto, California--High Desert area).

My Mariposa plum is about 10 years old, I planted this tree when it was three years old, in other words, I planted in 2006. So far, I has produced four good crops, the rest have been lost to frosts.

weatherman, we can grow stone fruits here in California (just about anywhere) like nobody's business. With little to no pest pressure. It is an entirely different situation on the east coast with their heavy, heavy summer humidity. Best bet is for folks like Scott, who lives in Maryland, where it is also very humid (I lived in Columbia, MD for several years) give our east coast forum members their expert opinions on cultivars best suited for their east coast climates. Scott is a wealth of information regarding growing stone fruits on the east coast. He has given out excellent advice over the years for our east coast members :-)

Patty S.

Well Truthfully I'm New To Growing Fruit Trees & I'm New To This Forum So I'm A Sponge Of Any Knowledge You All Can Give Me On Growing Trees In General or Specifically In The Southeast

Steve, I would look at the selections of Johnson Nursery and Just Fruits and Exotics. Both are southeastern nurseries that only sell varieties well-adapted to the area.

Most of the California plums do not do well in the southeast, but some do fine. Satsuma and Santa Rosa are two California plums that do great for me. I haven't found any of the pluots that do well, they are prone to rot or they don't set any fruit.

Scott

Oh ok thanks for the advice. I already have a Santa Rosa,Early Italian,Stanley Plum/Prune,,Shiro Plum,Methley, and Starking Delicious Planted. They all look good early on. I planted a Black Gold & Black York that are doing well also. Even though Pluots are hard to Grow here I still want to try it out. Keep them sprayed & watered and go from there. Pluots seem like a unique fruit and I am really curious to see how they will do

Here is my Mariposa plum. Pollinated by Satsuma plum and Santa Rosa plum.

oops. I forgot to post it.

Here is picture.

"Here is picture."

I meant "here is one more picture".

That's a beautiful tree. How often do you water your trees especially young trees?

Steve, pluots are genetically 98+% plum according to a U California study. So they are not really all that different. If you really want to try one I have found Flavor Supreme the easiest to grow. I only get a few fruits off the tree every year but they are outstanding. Flavor Grenade sets a lot of fruit but they have a big rot problem; same issue for Flavor King.

Some other plums I like that are easy to grow which you are not growing include Purple Heart, Superior, and Ruby Queen. Also the Spring Satin plumcot is a plum in taste and is very easy to grow. It was bred in the south unlike the pluots which were bred in California.

Scott

Scott I Already Planted Shiro Plum,Starking Delicious,Methley,Early Italian & Stanley. It's Early But They All Are Doing Well. I Wanted To Try Pluots Because Of The Uniqueness Of Them In The South. I Already Ordered Dapple Dandy,Flavor Grenade,Flavor King,Flavor Queen & Flavor Gem from Adams County Nursery. I Was Suggested By A Proffessor To Spray With Captan & Copper. I Want To At Least Try It

"That's a beautiful tree. How often do you water your trees especially young trees?"

Established trees: when windy, like today, I water them every day. During calm and hot weather, I water them every three- four days.

New trees: Since my hybrids ( peacotums, nectaplum, and aprium) are in pots with a good soil mixture--- miracle gro moisture control soil, desert sand, and gromulch soil* ---I water them every 6-10 days... this week has been very windy, therefore, I've been waterting them every 2-4 days.

* In another post I stated that I used scotts premium topsoil. I was wrong, I used gromulch soil not topsoil.

Here are Zaiger's hybrids.

One more thing, this tree (Mariposa plum) drops its fruits very easily with moderate winds, at least Satsuma plums are more resistant to high winds, this past two windy days it only dropped (Satsuma plum) about 10 compared to Mariposa plum--more than 90 plums.

This Is A Picture Of My Methley Plum Tree. All My 9 Trees I Planted This Spring Are Doing Well. I Used Miracle Gro Moisture Control Garden Soil & Miracle Gro Soil For Trees. I Live In Very Warm & Humid Weather...Hardly Any Wind. I Have Been Watering Them Thoroughly Once A Week

It's been a year since I posted this. The Elephant Heart Plum I planted last month is doing well. I have a little ant problem though. Does any ant treatment work or do I need anything specific for trees. I have a backyard orchard project that I planted 16 trees mostly on citation rootstock about 8ft apart & on 3 hedgerows 10-12 inches apart from each other. I wouldn't mind reconnecting with you Scott actually. I'm a year out in growing fruit & no major problems early. I just need to figure out the chemicals I should use. I have Bonide but I have been hearing it doesn't work that well with Brown Rot & with my Pluot & Plum trees in the ground I need something that will help with that. Any advise would be appreciated.

Steve, the only thing to worry about with ants is if you get aphids. They move the aphids around and make the infestation much worse. I usually just control the aphids with soap or oil and don't go after the ants. But on my cherries there is a leaf curling aphid hard to spray so I put tanglefoot on the trunk and that eliminates the ants which eliminates the aphids. You can also do that trick on plums. In fact I may try it this year since I get some horrible green aphids on my plums every year.

Re: spraying, once you get fruit you need to spray. I use Surround for the curculio and spinosad on the moths. For brown rot I use Monterey Garden Fungi Fighter (propiconazole) along with sulphur and Serenade. MFF does a very good job but its good to mix it up with other sprays or you may develop a resistant strain.

Scott

Thanks Scott I ordered Tanglefoot & I purchased a natural insecticide from Bonide & an insecticide for Monterey. I'm going to order Monterey Fungi Fighter also as well as Sulfur. The only question I have about Serenade is I think most people use it because you can get it at Lowes or in any store that sells Fungicides/Insecticides. I ordered on Amazon a lot of Bonide profucts that have some of the same active chemicalss. Starkbros sell Bonide products & it has great customer review by amazon customers. I have another question. What's the earliest do you need to start spraying your trees?

When you start depends on what problems you are dealing with. For brown rot it doesn't get going until midsummer so I usually wait until I see some signs of it before I spray. You should read some spray guidelines and figure out what you want to use. Along with brown rot make sure you are protecting against plum curculio, oriental fruit moth, and bacterial spot. Those four are nearly always a problem after a few years have passed. Curculio tends to find plums very fast and you need to spray right after petal fall to get him.

Scott