Content of the article:
Today gardeners have few or no previously known varieties of plums and other stone fruit. It is not surprising that the owners of household plots are interested in Peach Plum, a description of the variety, a photo of the plant and its fruits, as well as features of cultivation.
First of all, this variety of homemade plum attracts attention with large honey-colored fruits with a bright red-pink blush. The original appearance not only predetermined the name of the variety, but also became the cause of a common misconception. Many people mistakenly believe that the plant is a hybrid of peach and plum.
Bonecrop cultures are perfectly amenable to interspecific crossing, giving fertile offspring with some features of their parents. However, peach plum only remotely resembles a velvety southern fruit, as evidenced by a detailed description and photo of the plant.
Plum variety Peach
Despite its spectacular appearance, excellent dessert qualities and rather large fruits, the plant cannot be classified as new. The first peach variety was described in 1830.Until today, it has not reached the place where the first seedlings were grown, nor what varieties were used for breeding. It is obvious that the culture is of Western European origin and more than a century ago it was called the Red Nectarine or the Royal-Rouge variety.
Now that breeding has advanced far ahead, this variety is rarely found in plantings. However, in Soviet times, the variety was recommended for cultivation in the southern regions, which included the republics of the Caucasus and the North Caucasus, Moldova, and partly Ukraine, as well as the Kuban and Stavropol. To the north, due to the low winter-hardiness, the plants were frozen out, not giving the desired harvest.
In compliance with the rules of planting and care, the Peach Plum forms medium or tall trees with a well-leafy crown of medium thickness. Young saplings, compared to already fruiting plants, show high growth rates, which slow down by 5–7 years. It was at this time that the first ovary appeared on the bouquet branches.
At first, fruit trees yield unstable crops, but gradually the indicators level and increase. At 15 years of age, the plum of an early ripening period provides up to 50 kg of massively ripening, almost non-falling fruit. Depending on the region and weather conditions, fruit picking is carried out from the second half of July to the second decade of August.
Judging from the photo of Peach Plum, the plant has large oval leaves with a dull, barely visible tip. The leaf plate, unlike the peach, nectarine and apricot, is slightly pubescent, as are the young shoots of this year, as well as dense short petioles, on which the ovary firmly rests. The edges of the sheet are noticeably jagged.
According to the description of the variety and photo of the Peach Plum, it has large, round or ovate-oval fruits, a bit crushed at the top. On average, the weight of one plum with a thick, durable skin, on which an inconspicuous seam is located, is 45-50 grams. However, it is not uncommon when the mass of the fetus in warm years and with sufficient nutrition reaches 70 grams.
Plum color depends on weather conditions. The basic color of the skin covered with a bluish wax bloom is greenish-yellow. But if the fruit was sufficiently in the sun, a bright pink-red blush is formed on its sides, which can cover almost the entire surface.
A ripe, ready to eat plum has an elastic, juicy flesh of beautiful golden hue. The stone is small, flattened, easily separated, which, together with decent taste, indicates the value of the variety. Fragrant sweet and sour plums can be successfully used fresh and as a raw material for making jam, jam, stewed fruit and other culinary products.
Thanks to the dense skin and the ripening of plums of the Peach variety, they are easily transported and stored for a short time. The only lack of culture is low winter hardiness, which does not allow growing a variety without risk even in the Central Black Soil Region.
Plum Peach Michurin
Obviously knowing about the ruddy southern plum and wanting to get a more cold-resistant variety, in 1904 I. Michurin set about creating a similar variety of his own selection. As a basis, the scientist took a white plum stone brought from Reshetnikov's Samara farm. When the seedling bloomed, it was pollinated by the American Washington variety. The plant, called the Peach Plum Michurin, first bore fruit only in 1921.
The fruits of this culture have a round or round-oval shape. On the skin yellow with a dull greenish tint, you can notice:
- shallow suture;
- bluish wax bloom, easily washable when the plum falls into the hands or in contact with other fruits;
- is a pale reddish blush of a reddish hue, less pronounced than that of the Peach plum variety.
The weight of harmful plums is 35–45 grams. Under the thin skin lies sweet, containing up to 11% sugar and very little acid, juicy pulp of excellent taste. Fruits are mainly used in food fresh, but can be an excellent raw material for processing into culinary dishes and for fruit preservation.
In comparison with the southern relative, Michurinsk plum has a lower yield. Up to 15 kg of sweet dessert fruits can be collected from an adult tree with a thick crown and a height of up to 3-4 meters. At the same time, the period of fruiting begins 1–2 years later, and the harvest is conducted not in July, but in August and early September.
Despite the existing drawbacks, Peach Michurin plum is more winter-hardy and can stably bear fruit in the Voronezh, Kursk, Belgorod regions and to the south. A little to the north, for example, in the Tambov region, plants often do not ripen and young shoots freeze out, which reduces crop yields and calls into question the feasibility of growing a variety.
Features of planting and care for peach plum
Like all stone crops, plum needs competent care, which begins with the choice of a place to plant.
For a fast rooting and successful growth they find a sunny, protected from the wind plot with light fertile soil. It should be borne in mind that the plant is well related to irrigation, does not tolerate the proximity of groundwater.
However, the biggest drawback of this fruit crop is its low resistance to cold. First of all, young saplings, which should be sheltered for the winter, suffer from frost. It is good if the tree has natural protection from the wind, for example, a building wall, a fence or a hedge. Photo of plum Peach and description of the variety say that the ovary is formed on small bouquet sprigs. If the plant perezimuet well, in the spring it will please lush flowering.
But you should not wait for a bountiful harvest if you do not take care of planting varieties that can pollinate these fruit trees. The peach varieties of plum cultivars can be considered as varieties of Renklod and Vengerka, which are flowering at the same time as it, as well as the variety Anna Shpet and Mirabel Nancy. Pollinating trees should be nearby, accessible to bees carrying pollen from one plant to another.
