La Crescent Plum Tree
- Zone 4
Characteristics of the tree
La Crescent is a true delicacy. Light yellow in colour, it is freestone and perfectly sweet, with flavour notes of apricot and honey. This variety was one of the first hardy plum varieties to be born from the Minnesota Fruit Breeding program in the early 1920s. It remains one of the best.
La Crescent is a small plum weighing about 17g on average. It is very pretty in appearance, perfectly round with light yellow skin. Its flesh is golden-orange, and has a very good texture: firm but juicy and melting, not fibrous. The skin is thin, and only slightly acidic (much less than most plums), while the flesh is perfectly sweet, with a hint of apricot and honey flavour. It is also almost freestone, a great help if you wish to use it in cooking. These plums would be excellent in pies or jams – if you can stop yourself from eating them all fresh off the tree! They are generally ready to harvest in early September, although the exact harvest date will vary from year to year.
The La Crescent plum tree is hardy to zone 4 and is resistant to brown rot. Like all hybrid plum trees, it is self-sterile and must be pollinated by a Canada Plum (Prunus nigra) or an American Plum (Prunus americana) in order to set fruit.
This variety is sometimes also known as Crescent, Golden La Crescent and Golden Minnesota. La Crescent is the result of a cross between the Shiro plum (Prunus simonii x Prunus salicina x Prunus cerasifera x Prunus munsoniana) and Howard Yellow plum (Prunus americana). It was introduced in 1923 by the University of Minnesota Fruit Breeding Program.
Plums are fast-growing trees, but stay relatively small. A plum tree at maturity will not usually exceed 5 metres or 16 feet in height. Its life expectancy is also quite short: one can generally expect it to live between 30 and 50 years. This illustration shows a 20-year-old plum tree that has attained its maximum height.
You should note that this illustration is meant only to give a general indication of what you can expect, and the growth of your tree might look somewhat different. The development of a tree depends on the soil type, irrigation, fertilisation and climatic conditions. What we show here is based on our observation of the growth of plum trees in zone 4, in rather poor soil. In zone 2, growth will probably be slower, while in a rich soil it could be faster.
All our plum trees are sold bare-root, without pots. They have been cultivated directly in our soil. Bare-root trees must be taken out of the ground and shipped during their period of dormancy, which is why we only ship trees in the spring. A big advantage with these kinds of trees, is that they take up very little space, and can therefore be easily shipped by mail all over Canada!
This photograph shows a 2-3-foot plum tree, just like one that you might receive. Depending on the height you choose at the time of purchase, the tree might be a little smaller (1-2 feet) or somewhat taller (3-5 feet.)
Our plum varieties are hybrids of Canadian, American and Japanese plums. If you are thinking of planting a plum tree, it is important to understand how their pollination works. Hybrid plum trees are self-sterile, and cannot produce fruit alone. Moreover, they are not good pollinators for one another. Even if you plant two different varieties next to each other, you are unlikely to harvest any fruit.
Instead, hybrid plum trees need a wild plum tree to pollinate them: either the Canada plum (Prunus nigra) which is considered the best pollinator, or the American plum (Prunus americana) which also works well. So if you intend to plant plum trees, you must also plant at least one of these nearby, unless of course you already happen to have one. One wild plum tree is enough to pollinate up to around five grafted plum trees.
One drawback of plum trees is that they tend to flower early, making them sensitive to freezing in late frosts. Some microclimates help to mitigate this, such as the proximity of a lake or ocean. We also have a trick to help prevent them from flowering too early: applying a layer of mulch or compost underneath the base of the tree while there is still a good amount of snow on the ground. This insulates the snow underneath, so that it melts more slowly, and by maintaining a colder environment around the base of the tree, delays the start of its flowering period.
