Lavina Plums

Maybe should have been thinned? I got a ton of these things this year (i have them on another tree too)… I noticed there is a Japanese beetle in this picture too. I would have squished him/her.

Things moving along here. Lots of spot on the cots…

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Warm,
I have about two Lavina fruit on my Lavinia graft :angry:

Cold temp in early March killed them all.

If it were me, I would have thin it.

How do you keep your fruit so clean? Envious.

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I think i put about 3 sprays of permethrin on these…spaced maybe 7-14 days apart depending on weather. Other then that they get a lot of sun where they are. I may need to put some hardware cloth or something.

I know i should have thinned…i’ll just leave them now. I have another tree where they are thinned way better…lots of space. The PC got them more i think.

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I thinned mine well but when pests hit after thinning, I’ll be lucky to have any clean fruit left.

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Mamuang: Did your Lavina fruit the year after grafting? Do plums fruit on second year wood like peaches?

Warmwxrules: if my Lavina(grafted this year and about 1.5 ft of growth so far) fruits like that I’d be thrilled. How old is that Lavina?

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I believe it was budded summer 2014…so grew out summer 2015…had some fruits last year and a ton this year. It does tend to grow quickly and i’ll have to prune it back some.

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Susu,
My bad, the Lavinia grafts was from 2015 so it is two year’s old graft of Lavinia.

However, I have Flavor Supreme and Flavor King flowered this year. They were grafted last year. I don’t if they will abort the fruit. The grafts are small.

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My Lavina took several years to begin to fruit. I put it on an older plum stump and it was too vigorous, I could not get it under control. Once it starts fruiting you need major thinning though.

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Looking forward to it!

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I have a perfect picture to answer that question. Some varieties do, but Lavina is not one of them. In the linked pic, Laroda has flowers all the way up, on the new growth from the previous year. Lavina did not and only had flowers on the 2 year old wood.

I’ve done some serious pruning on both Lavina and Laroda (6-8’ cut back, etc), but both are still strong growers. This is the first year that I’m getting more than a couple from either after planting both in 2014.

I probably didn’t thin enough…

Lavina:

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Beautful, Bob. How the fruit hang on without breaking a branch? My Shiro produces lie that and needs serious thinning.

I lost a big branch of PF 24 C yesterday. I posted a thread with pics to help remind others to be careful about leaving a lot of fruit on.( I could have sworn, I thinned off a lot). It could happen.

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Bob.

Your Lavina plums looked clean. Any insects spray?

Tony

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I lost one small one from Sweet Treat, but it is just as overloaded as Lavina, if not more so.

Sweet Treat:

Another smaller branch:

Either I did a better job thinning Laroda (I do remember spending a bit more time on it), or it self-thins better:

I did as @alan suggested and sprayed twice with Triazicide and Immunox, a couple weeks apart, starting after petal fall from the later apples. I think it was too late for a lot of my plums which have significant damage (Euros, Satsuma, and some pluots were all badly hit), but Lavina came through without too much damage. The only ones which are getting a dark red blush so far are the ones whose ripeness has been accelerated by the bugs. I think some of the light red blush are just legitimately ripening fruit. I have had some bird pecks too, which seems to be the source of a few brown rot hits in both Lavina and Laroda.

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Bob,
Very productive plum year for you. Congrats.

To me, the two spray is definitely not enough. OFM and PC have done serious damage. Twodays ago, I cut open Shiro, both OFM and PC worms were in the same fruit!!! Horrible.

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Does this look like Lavina? Brady

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It looks like it could be, though it also looks a lot like the unripe Sweet Treat pictured above. I think the real test will be when you cut it open and taste it.

Some potentially (not certain) ripe fruit picked today:

I found another branch that I didn’t even notice the last few times I looked at the tree- the weight of it pulled it down, hiding it over the fence into the neighbors yard.

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Right now,I’ll say Lavina,since Sweet Treat isn’t one that’s in my collection.
The flesh did look somewhat like the one in your picture,Bob.
There are others ripening on more grafts to compare later.Thanks,Brady

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Bob,
Do redder Lavina taste sweeter? Just wonder if I should leave the fruit to get redder or they will be overripe by then.

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I think Scott mentioned in another thread that they aren’t really ripe until red. I think they are pretty tasty with a red blush, so you don’t really need to get them fully red. I could change my mind once I sample some more that have ripened further though.

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I got Lavinia from someone, I think it was you Bob, two seasons back. That branch is about 36 inches now, it flower this year but frost killed everything so maybe next year… Fingers crossed

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