Last week Darrell and Mary Kromm from Reeseville Ridge Nursery stopped by on their way up North to drop off a native plum tree, often called the American plum (Prunus americana). I had contacted Darrell earlier in the year to find out if he could tell me why my native plum trees don’t produce fruit. They did the first couple of years after we planted them, but have since failed to produce even though they have cloned themselves to take over a fairly large area at the southern boundary of my prairie.
Darrell told me that typically plum trees require a co-pollinator. Plums typically do not set fruit without having received pollen by another of the same species. This pollen transfer, of course, is done by the bees, moths and other pollinators so there must have been other plum trees in the area many years ago.
According to Doug Tallamy‘s research, the genera Prunus supports 456 native caterpillars, moths and butterflies, so we really want to keep these trees around. I’m just looking for a little jam as my reward.
So, I’ve planted my new plum tree. It maybe a couple of years before it produces fruit, but perhaps the cross-pollinating will occur sooner than that. Stay tuned….
Another good reference source for details on plum trees.
Hello, Donna,
The lady who presented on native pollinators at the Minnesota conference suggested another aspect to the pollination issue.
Native pollinators need food for their entire pollination season, not just for the plums, etc that we value.
Case in point. Carol and I have a blue berry plantation that produces quarts and quarts of fruit.
For us, this happened by coincidence. Turns out, the native pollinators that love blue berries dine on other plants throughout their season, things like Dutchman’s breeches, willows, and red twig dog wood.
As dumb luck would have it, we had those natives all growing within a few yards of the blue berrries. Hence , the native pollinators stick around, making the blue berries just one of their stops, albeit one that is great for us.
Hi! Jim — sounds like you’re providing the prefect habitat for our native pollinators. I assume you’re speaking of Heather Holm’s presentation. I included some of her thoughts in my earlier posts Trees and Shrubs for Early Nesters and Trees and Shrubs for early Pollinators. I think you might enjoy reading them as well.
I am writing from Canada. We have a large grove of wild plum trees growing down the side of our back field. Most years there is a huge bumper crop of beautiful small red plums. Every few years we have a late frost and as a result no fruit. I believe these wild plums are the same as your American Wild Plum. They are bright red when ripe and about 1 inch in diameter with a very large pit. They are also very acidic and I do not use them for much other than Plum Jelly. There is really not enough flesh to make jam. We live on a farm 3 or 4 miles west of Dryden, Ontario. Like most rural areas, we know all our neighbours and no one around here has other types of plums growing on their property. How would you account for the bumper crops we get almost every year with no other trees to cross pollinate. Are there other wild (or tame???) plants that can pollinate a plum tree?
Esther — the American plum is self-pollinating. Since you have a large grove of wild plum trees, that is all you need — Donna