i have a santa rosa plum tree that was planted at the same time as a Japanese golden plum tree 20 years ago and every year I get a teriffic crop from the golden plum but never any plums from the santa rosa even though there are plenty of blossoms in the spring, do you have any idea why the santa rosa does not crop. thank you saul
Beauty—Ripe mid July to early August. Red skin, yellow flesh, fruit medium size, ripens over 2-week period. Very juicy and a good substitute for Santa Rosa which usually does poorly in western Washington. http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb0937/eb0937.pdf
I have a Santa Rosa Plum in Burnaby that is over 20 years. I grafted 3 other varieties on it while it was still young; one of them is a yellow Japanese plum that may be the same variety as yours. Over the years the yellow plum has produced excessive crops, while the Santa Rosa typically only ripens a few to a dozen plums. The one exception was last year, when the Santa Rosa actually produced a real crop. I believe that the reason for the good crop was just the right kind of weather for that variety. Early Spring was cool, delaying blossoming; but, when the Santa Rosa did finally blossom, the weather suddenly turned unusually warm. So it appears that Santa Rosas need warm (and possibly dry) weather during and immediately after blooming in order to set a good crop. These conditions occur frequently in California but are rare in our area, which would explain why we usually don't get much of a crop. If you didn't get any fruit last year, you must have some other problem as well, possibly lack of an appropriate pollinator. I know that the Santa Rosa is described as self-fertile, but most self-fertile fruits do better with a pollinator. I grafted a Red Heart plum on the Santa Rosa tree as a pollinator because I wasn't sure that the yellow plum was doing the job. Perhaps the Beaty plum that Ron B described is a good substitute, but I would want to know how it tastes. The flavor of the Santa Rosa is far superior to either the yellow or Red Heart plums. The Red Heart, by the way, is just as unproductive as the Santa Rosa.
thank you for this information it is most likely what has been my problem I live north of the upper levels and spring does take longer to arrive. I planted an Italian prune plum 5 years ago and it bore blossoms for the first time this year although no fruit set, once again probably the weather.
