Interested in joining
Monday, January 20, 2025 - 06:45
I'm interested in joining this project but the website they said to buy the seeds from says it doesn't work anymore. Is that just me? Is the project still going?
Beach Plum Improvement Project
This project aims to identify and develop superior cultivars of native beach plums (Prunus maritima).
Description
Beach plums are native to the US northeast coast from Virginia to Maine. They are most widely known and consumed in New Jersey and Massachusetts, especially in Cape May and Cape Cod, where they are both harvested wild and cultivated on a small scale. The fruit of beach plums are small and round, varying in size from penny to quarter, and varying in color from yellow-orange to red to blue to purple. The flavor — sour with a touch of sweetness and sometimes slight bitterness — is usually quite nice out of hand, but is greatly improved by cooking or brewing. It makes an utterly delicious jam or jelly, a fine wine, and a lovely vinegar too. As a wild plant native to highly exposed dune environments, beach plums are very easy to grow and take to garden cultivation quite well. In fact, due to their wild nature, they thrive with near complete neglect. In our area, they produce delicious fruit with no spray, no fertilizer, and no watering. Being a dune plant, they root themselves very deeply.
A beach plum can grow into a tree up to 10 or 12 feet tall, but typically becomes a shrubby-looking bush. Wild beach plums are noted for having off-years when none of the beach plums in an area produce any fruit. Sometimes this is due to very late frosts, but sometimes the reason is unclear. This beach plum improvement breeding project seeks to develop cultivars with more regular bearing, larger fruit, and more productivity.
Volunteers interested in this project are asked to cover the costs of processing and shipping seeds (wild harvested from Cape May, NJ) by purchasing the seeds from our seed store website (www.EFNSeeds.com). They will become available in January 2019. Seeds benefit from 60-90 days of cold moist stratification (in a bag in the fridge with some peatmoss or potting soil should do the trick).
Researcher background
See bio in "About" section.
Are you seeking volunteer growers or other types of volunteers?
Yes, seeking volunteer growers
How many volunteers do you need?
30
What will you ask volunteers to do?
Volunteers will be asked to grow beach plums from seed and look for any extraordinary individual plants. In future years, those with at least two plants of note may be asked to conduct controlled crosses between such individual plants. Once plants begin fruiting (within 3 or 4 years is not unusual for this species), volunteers will be asked to collect data on productivity, fruit size, and annual bearing.
Other requirements of volunteers?
All volunteers welcome, but particularly those in areas with weather similar enough to the US northeast and mid-Atlantic.
Is this a multi-year project?
Yes
Can volunteers expect to be able to keep some germplasm (seeds, bulbs, cuttings, spores, etc) at the close of the project?
Yes, of course
Researcher Location
08318
United States
Project Updates
2024 Update
Friday, May 17, 2024 - 12:35
I'm still growing BPs and still seeking superior varieties. Not sure how this page or project work, as there doesn't seem to be a way to contact each other or have a conversation here. Last year I was able to get six named varieties grafted onto myrobalon rootstock or some of my existing mature Beach plum bushes. I'm continuing to grow those out and hope to have the clones on their own roots within a year or two. I'm also continuing to plant Beach Plum seeds and growing them out to see what I get. I don't have a huge piece of property, so that is being done by getting them big enough to cut scion wood, then grafting onto existing mature Beach plums. I also scout for Beach plums along the lower Delaware bay coast. I've got several promising looking wild varieties grafted onto my mature plums in the yard. If anyone here is interested in joining in a conversation about existing varieties that are out there or is in need of seed, you can contact me on growingfruit.com in this Beach Plum thread. https://growingfruit.org/t/beach-plum-varieties-available-for-sale/52644 Good growing! -Pete
How to get started with a new plant?
Saturday, September 30, 2023 - 06:42
Hello. I live on the shoreline in Connecticut and want to support planting some beach plums along the coast. There’s disturbed wetland all around me. I found only one beach plum tree in the area and it’s super healthy. Any tips on how and where to get started?
Yay, my seedlings came back!
Monday, April 17, 2023 - 02:32
I grew 3 good seedlings of the Cape May beach plums, I overwintered them in my front flower bed. They have come back and are growing! I'm very excited.
2023 Focus Year
Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - 08:04
I've decided to focus on BP this year. Started a thread on growingfruit.org searching for avaialble BP selections, and have managed to locate and obtain scionwood of at least 5 (with more on the way) superior selections. I have 10 myrobalan rootstocks in the ground ready (soon) for grafting, so hope to get a number of seelctions started by summer. I also have 4 mature seedlings grown from seed from various sources, including a BYFG fruit tasting, "Resigno" seed (a seed-propagated BP line originally selected from Cape May NJ wild BPs ~100 years ago), and wild picked plums from Cape Henlopen DE. Also 4 "Resigno" 2nd year seedlings, as well as 3 other 2nd year seedlings. Am starting to run out of room; will be culling some of the lower performing seedlings after this season or grafting to them.
What do others have going on? Any superior selections in your collections? -Pete
Three strong seedlings
Tuesday, September 20, 2022 - 04:29
I planted my seeds in August after stratification in the fridge for about 75 days. Three of them have grown into strong seedlings. I will plant them in my flowerbed while it's still warm outside and see how they grow through November. So far so good.
Oikos, that is
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - 03:59
It’s about 13 ft wide, super prolific every year.
Already have one very superior cultivar—
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - 01:59
I planted some peach plums from Waco’s 10 years ago, I have five or six vigorous ones, but one that is hands-down the most productive, beautiful, and delicious! Anyway that this individual could be well enjoyed in this project, and even Crossing with it or taking cuttings, let me know!
precocious flowering Beach Plum
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - 12:39
As far as I heard Oikos has a strain of Beach Plum which flowers within the 1st or 2nd after germination.
This might be helpful in further breeding.
Seeds
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - 07:25
I live in maine on 1.5 acres. I practice edible permaculture, and I just learned that prunus maritima is endangered in maine.
How do I get seeds.
Thank you!
New seedlings
Thursday, June 27, 2019 - 09:55
I grow some seedling of P.maritima hybrids. All came from Oikos.
I am excited to see them grow.
Any advice to speed up the youth stage? I was told there possibilities to bring Prunus seedlings to flower within its 3 year. Would be good to speed it up a little bit.