Back in August of 2023 , I come across my first stand of wildPrunus americana , the American plum .
That month I compose :
I ’ve always been fascinate with wild fruits . Some of them are quite good ! We found that to be the case with these howling American plum tree I harvest by the side of the route in Kentucky , just northwards of the Tennessee margin .
We ’d never seen this coinage before , but it was covering the roadside in large patch . After spot the first few ball of trees and seeing them hung with red fruit , I had to pull over the van at the next convenient topographic point and see what form of fruit they were .
( My married woman and children are used to me pulling over the car for random plants . In fact , I mean this may be one of the reason why my teenager favor to drive when we are on long route trips . )
My surmisal was that they were a crabapple , or perhaps a summer haw . They were gruelling and crimson . I fulfill my hat and brought it back to the railcar , then had one of the kids open up one of them with my pocketknife while I was driving .
To my joy , it had a pit inside . godforsaken plum ! But it was a metal money we had n’t seen in Florida or Alabama . The leaves are much heavy than those of the wild plums I ’ve seen here , and the yield is much blood-red .
We key it as being the native American plum tree . My wife made a really respectable jam from the yield , and I saved and stratified the pits in the electric refrigerator . Most of them sprout in a few months , and I pot them up and put them in the greenhouse .
Two calendar month ago , while they were dormant , I potted them up into larger skunk . Some of them had grow buddy-buddy , red - Orange River origin right through the bottom of their pots and through the baby’s room fabric into the surd clay stain beneath the glasshouse . I cut the theme with a machete and leave them in the ground , then potted up the trees . They ’ll do amercement , being marginal root …
… but what I did n’t wait was to have those roots in the greenhouse sprout new shoots and leaves !
This is one toughened plum tree !
Today I bet them up again and founda very good post on the mintage by Akira Silver , source of the bookTrees of Power .
When I first see about American plum tree I was fascinated . A aboriginal plum tree that forms thickets and bring forth vast sum of minuscule delicious plums ! , I had to experience them . It was years before I plant a stand of American plums growing in the wild . Gnarly little Tree growing together in a thicket along a stream , they were wrap up in undimmed snowy blossoms . I have since grown out hundreds of seedling every yr and planted as many as I have fourth dimension for . The American plum tree ( genus Prunus Americana ) is a metal money suitable of the tending of aboriginal flora gardeners , wildlife enthusiasts , nester , and even commercial orchardists . Prunus Americana is just one of several species of aboriginal plum . They are extremely adaptable receive a aboriginal range that stretch along across the Northeast , the Southeast , and over through the prairies up to North Dakota . They come out to abide just about any soil . I have see them thriving in heavy clay , dry gravelly grease , and in inundation plains . I have read that they can reach height of 35 feet , but this has not been my watching at all . Every time I have ground a stand in the state of nature , it has never been more than 12 feet tall ( I live in upstate NY , so perhaps mood toy a divisor in decide size ) .
American plums are thicket forming . The trees send out runners with sprouts pop up as far forth as 10 pes from the base of the automobile trunk . The trees can be bristled . This vary considerably between individuals , but most do have scant sharp spur .
American plum hit the gate run . They seem to explode the first few years until unfolding begins . I have turn American plums from seminal fluid that reached 8 metrical unit with branches their first year . Typically they grow somewhere between 2 and 5 feet the first yr . Once they start out flowering and fruiting , growth slow down way down and tidy sum of small arm and root suckers develop .
The origin suckers can be very prolific . In yard , they are ensure by mowing . However , on the edge of a garden bed they can be difficult to deal with .
And they arise through greenhouse credit card !
I think I ’ll sum up some of these trees to the edge of my property to make thickets . Akira has a photograph in his article of a three - yr - erstwhile American plum tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree cover in blooms .
Fast to fruit , hard to kill , and a serious aboriginal edible ?
Sign me up !
I ’m very glad I found them . We have about sixty in the nursery properly now . We ’ll see how they fruit in Lower Alabama . I do n’t care if they sucker all over – we ’ll just keep them at the sharpness and enjoy them there . Right plant , correct property . Plus , they can be a rootstock for other plums , which will be fun . In the past I did that with Chickasaw and had great succeeder .
I love aboriginal fruits . What play to have a new one to hear . Just bugger off ta wait another twelvemonth or so and see if we get yield .
