PLUMS

[PM239]

Are there any types of Plums that fruit well South of Tampa?

[Citradia]

Years ago when I lived in Bradenton Fl, I wanted to grow flowering trees and learned that "it doesn't get cold enough to grow that", meaning apples, plums, pears, etc. when I saw a Chickasaw plum tree in full bloom at the Tampa state fair, I just had to have one. I planted two in the yard and they died quickly. Come to find out, plums grow better in sandy soil than they do in the wierd thick white clay that was just under the surface soil. I've since seen one 7 feet tall and blooming one Christmas at the Manatee Historical Village park in Bradenton. I've made jam out of Chickasaw plum when we had wild ones in Gainesville, Fl, and it was bitter like kumquat. Chickasaw is native, and I doubt any other domesticated plum will get the chilling hours needed south of Tampa. Good luck!

[PM239]

Thank You

[bsbullie]

There are some low chill plums that will fruit here but in all honesty,  they will not compare to the high chill varieties.   Another fruit that should be left for those in Cali.

If you want to grow stone fruits, stick with peaches and nectarines.

[PM239]

Thank You

[SoCal2warm]

One excellent plum variety that I want to mention is Rene Claude Doree. It's a green gauge variety which may not look like much but has superb taste. This variety is lower chill than many others, and I believe that it will produce okay in zone 9b, just south of Tampa.

[bsbullie]

One excellent plum variety that I want to mention is Rene Claude Doree. It's a green gauge variety which may not look like much but has superb taste. This variety is lower chill than many others, and I believe that it will produce okay in zone 9b, just south of Tampa.

I have never seen that available in Florida or listed as one of the low chill varieties.   As that is an old French variety,  if I had to guess I would say it would not fruit here.  The low chill varieties are the Japanese type and the majority here begin with "Gulf".

[Citradia]

You have to get a certain number of chill hours below 45 degrees in winter for temperate fruit trees to thrive and bloom. It is difficult to get chill hours on the gulf coast south of Tampa. I grew up there and was very frustrated that I couldn't grow the beautiful flowering trees that folks just a few hours north of me could. That's why I moved to NC so I could grow whatever flowering tree I wanted and no one could tell me anymore, "it doesn't get cold enough to grow that here".  When my grandpa in palmetto FL talked about "fruit trees ", he meant citrus. I think California gets more chilling hours than south FL even though they may be zone 10, meaning they don't get far below freezing, they still probably see more days below 45 degrees than you do south of Tampa. I remember going outside in January one morning after s low of 50 degrees in Bradenton FL and found a bright red leaf on my Bradford pear tree, and brought the leaf inside to show the family the fall color.

[PM239]

Thank, i am just north of Palmetto...
I will find something else i guess

[starch]

How low chill do you need?
Santa Rosa is a truly full-flavored plum that is low chill. Dave Wilson website says 300 hours, but it has flowered for me with less chill hours than that.

[PM239]

I don't think I get 200 honestly.

[starch]

I would give it a shot. I recall people in San Diego (which gets < 200 hours) saying on CloudForest that Santa Rosa sets for them.
Santa Rosas are also some of my favorite plums. They are worth trying to grow.

Beauty, Mariposa and Methley are three other very low chill plums. But I have not tried these yet.

[Citradia]

I planted Santa Rosa in Gainesville, Fl just before I left home for NC, and it grew large and made some plums before my parents neglected it. The wild Chickasaw plums that were there in 1994 when we moved there are still there and producing fruit. If you're north of palmetto, I'd definitely try Chickasaw plums. I saw wild Chickasaw plums blooming once in the eastern part of manatee county on a cattle fence, but never saw them in the wild in east Bradenton or near the coast; the climate changes from tropical to more subtropical as you go east from coast in manatee county. My grandma showed me a dogwood tree in someone's yard in palmetto when I was a kid and it looked like crap. My uncle in Lakeland however has beautiful dogwood and redbud trees that bloomed well. When in Bradenton I was able to grow Anna apples, Einshimer apple, Fuyu persimmon, and of course any kind of citrus or tropical fruit. Grandma had guava bush at one time but said a freeze wiped out the guavas in palmetto at some time in history. With global warming going on I'd try tropical fruits there if I were you, otherwise you'll be like me hoping for enough cold weather to make your temperate fruit trees go dormant and bloom. If they don't get enough cold to go to sleep at winter, certain trees will get stressed from lack of sleep and die. I've killed crabapples, Bradford pear, wisteria, dogwood, redbud from lack of cold in east Bradenton in the early 90s when climate was colder than it is now.

[PM239]

Thanks everyone

[SoCal2warm]

There are a few people growing green gauge plums around Los Angeles and San Diego (zone 10). They're not spectacularly productive, but they do fruit, sometimes sparsely, sometimes a medium amount. Maybe not if you live within 7 miles of the coast, but otherwise it is doable. The same thing goes for Blenheim Apricot trees (which supposedly needs 400-500 chill hours).

While the stone fruit family definitely has a tendency not to be flexible with chill hours, I believe there are a few varieties that can be a little more forgiving. For such select varieties, the chill hours may say more about what is optimal than about what the plant absolutely needs.

[Jct]

I'm in San Diego (Zone 10b) and I probably had a couple of dozen (or more) plums on a dwarf Santa Rosa plum.  They were on the small side, but very tasty and the kids loved them.  I'm half-way between the coast and inland valleys, so somewhat moderate temps and last winter was warm, not a whole lot of time around 40^o.