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I have a Santa Rosa plum tree, maybe 20 years old. One main trunk (major fork) has been slowly dying and is now quite dead. The other which is the main stem is losing vigor too and producing very little fruit. In earlier 'good' seasons we'd get about 50lb from the tree.

Many strong suckers are growing from the presumably-wild root and have begun making small plums. These are a quite acceptable fruit but not as flavorful as the Santa Rosas. I'm considering cutting down the original trunk and letting the wild shoots flourish to become our source of (smaller, less delicious) garden plums.

I also wonder if it would be possible to take a live shoot or two from the original tree and graft them lower on the main stem to regrow the vigorous Santa Rosa. I've never tried grafting before.

Opinions??

Ooh I hope JONA and/or !potatoes! drops by with their nuggets of wisdom.

Personally, grafting the upper good ones to some of the lower ones to see if they will take sounds like a FUN idea.

I *think* I did this with my Enterprise apple tree a while ago. The graft “took” on the root sucker and have started to bloom last year? 2 years ago? The main tree looks desperate after having been nearly girdled by voles, but so far, keeps coming back in spring.

...my parents had a Santa Rosa tree at the house where they used to live. They used to make Japanese style plum “wine” liqueur with rock sugar and rum (traditionally Shochu but difficult to get). One year they tried vodka, brandy, and rum ...even whiskey, and decided they liked rum-based flavor best. Also made salty pickled Umeboshi, and plum concentrate — all based on remembered recipes from my dad’s childhood learned while helping his mother.

@Apllestar, I make a nice wine with the Santa Rosas. and my wife makes 'HP' sauce with almost any kind of plum.

oooh is she open to sharing her recipe? or is it a secret?

applestar wrote: ↑

Wed May 19, 2021 8:25 pm

oooh is she open to sharing her recipe? or is it a secret?

Here it is. I'm not an HP fan but son-in-law demands 1 yr supply every xmas.

'HP' sauce; makes abt 9 - 375ml bottles. Shelf life at least 1yr,

Prune plums 6 lb.
White vinegar 6 C.
Brown sugar 4 C.
Ground cloves 2 tsp
Black pepper 2 tsp
Cayenne pepper 2 tsp
Ground ginger 2 tsp
Ground mace 1 tsp
Salt 6 tsp
Garlic powder 2 TBsp

Note - have substituted fresh for ground ginger & garlic.

Wash, pit & quarter plums; bring to boil with other ingredients.
Reduce heat, simmer 2.5-3 hours.
Cool, blend, bottle.