I need some help re cross-pollination of Pembina Plum tree - I understand it can cross-pollinate with another Pembina, or another plum tree, or a Sandsomething! However, where I purchased it said it can cross pollinate with a Nanking Cherry bush. So I checked other greenhouses and they said no - however, the people speaking to me were young summer temps! So back to my supplier - they spoke to the boss and she confirmed that it can - she had apparently studied all about Horticulture for 8 years. So I look a leap of faith = since then people have sown seeds of doubt - so I am checking again with the experts!!! thanks in advance.
Hi Rositam: After what I've gone through to learn more of this "hardy" plum I can see why you had a rough time getting a straight answer. Yes, you will need a pollinizer for this Plum. The hard part was figuring out which pollinizer would work. It appears that the Grenville may be your best bet to use as a pollinizer for this Plum. I read that certain American Plums will work and I've read that they will not work for Pembina. I would not use another Pembina Plum to pollinize a Pembina Plum. Below is the URL to a University of Saskatchewan article which may give some insight into this Plum. Since it is a document file either open it up or save it to disk. http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plantsci/dom_fruit/articles/plums.doc This URL below tells of several possible pollinizers for the Pembina. http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt200208.html This nursery did not come right out and say it but their reference to Grenville was valid in more ways than one. http://www.boughennurseries.com/plum_cherry_plum_pear_trees.htm You now have some options for a pollinizer as opposed to what you were told. Good luck, Jim
Thanks Jim for the help (again!) I did some more digging and this link provides some more details on pollination. It would appear that the Evans Cherry can self-pollinate. As far as the plums are concern, the Brookred and Pembina can pollinate each other. See groupings in the website. http://www.sproutfarms.com/plum.htm I am definitely leaning towards an Evans cherry, a Brookred Plum and a Pembina Plum.
oops, I think I had posted my reply to the wrong thread. But the link do contain some information on the cross-pollination of Pembina plums.
The following fact sheet gives a table for determining compatible cross pollination varieties. It is an OMAF Publication 430. www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/02-041.htm A google search will also readily find it. R. Williams , Ottawa
Howdy Rositam, Pembina is a hybrid between the Native Canadian plum (Prunus nigra) and Red June, a Japanese plum (Prunus salicina). It was bred in Brookings and was released in 1917. As a hybrid of such parentage, it is self sterile. In other words it will not pollinate itself and requires another. Planting another Pembina will NOT work. It has been found that most hybrids with these parentage has very poor or weak pollen. I have planted Pembina before and had excellent production. My pollinating variety is a Prunus nigra. Brookred is an open pollinated seedling of Ivanovka. Since Ivanovka is a Prunus salicina, on paper it should work but if you were to look at the morphological characteristics of Brookred, you will come to the conclusion that it either has Canadian or American blood (Prunus americana) in it. Hence it is a poor pollen source for Pembina. My recommendation to you is to graft a small branch of your Pembina with a Prunus nigra. Since you live in Edmonton, if you have room for another tree, how about planting a Japanese plum. Those perfectly hardy for you are Zapie, Ivanovka, Foffonoff. Only problem is they might bloom a little earlier than Pembina and you will only be able to pollinate the last few Pembina flowers. These Japanese plums produce excellent eating fruits (better than Pembina in my opinion). By the way, I will not take Mr. Shep's recommendation of Grenville. Although it is hardy for Edmonton, the plums will not ripen as our summer is too short and cool. Hope that helps. Thean PS. Pembina produces big, beautiful plums. The plums are very very sweet but the skin is sour and there might be a hint of bitterness near the stone. The three Japanese plums I mentioned produce smaller plums but just as sweet without the sour skin and bitterness.
Well Thean, what can I say? A lot can change since June. Your Ministry of Agriculture deferred to the Ministry of Agriculture in Saskatchewan on this subject of the Pembina Plum and now several months later you are coming at me when it was their recommendation of using a Grenville to be a pollinizer for a Pembina. At least I named a pollinizer, you listed 3 other Plums to grow instead. The topic was not the 3 Plums you listed but Pembina. If Montana St. still had their chart that showed the timings of bloom online you would have seen that the Grenville was an option for growing Pembina Plums. The topic was not growing Grenville Plums, nor the 3 you have listed as viable substitutes instead. If we can expect sparse at best pollinization from Pembina with the Plums you suggested then why have the Pembina to start with? It seems that your option is better served if the owner did not have a Pembina Plum at all. Take issue with your Ministries of Agriculture at home. Had the recommendation been solely mine I would not have included any links to serve as references. It is not my fault that the information online has been changed since June. Jim As a footnote: I read several reports on this Plum. I've had people contact me through Private Messaging about this particular Plum. One thing that has been consistent is that bad information has been passed around in Canada about this Plum. As several sources have stated that the Plum is self-fertile to which it obviously isn't. The best information I read was out of Ontario but my question was would those Plums referenced work in Edmonton. What I did find is that we know much more of what Plums will not work as a pollinizer as opposed to which Plums will work. From the US we have a better idea as to the blooming times of the various Plums that could work as pollinizers for the Pembina but only one study has effectively used those Plums in Canada and it came out of Ottawa. So, how those Plums will work in Edmonton is something I do not know but what bothered me the most was that it seems no one in Alberta wanted to learn on their own but chose to defer to a nearby province for their answers. I hope that has changed since. This whole issue becomes a dead one when the person that started the thread either asked the question in jest or got their answers and ran. There was and is no need for me to go with the links I still have that would have served as a basis for a follow up. The Pembina Plum is a Canadian issue and a person from the foremost Plum growing region in the US cannot fully explain or understand the lack of knowledge that seemingly exists towards this particular Plum in Canada. You did just fine Thean but others, even in prominent positions, have simply not done their homework on this Plum. I do feel bad for the homeowners that read the newspaper articles and decided to want to grow this Plum and then have the chain of command know very little about this Plums needs.
I have just bought a Pembina plum and was considering grafting a Canada plum onto it. There are a few ways to do this, and I am wondering which would be the most appropriate. I believe it is too late in the season to graft a scion onto a branch, but what about a bud graft onto the trunk?
