Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The Santa Rosa is a dark red plum with amber flesh and a rich, winey flavor. Unfortu-
nately, because it rarely grows to a very great size, it has fallen from favor. In the 1960s
Santa Rosas dominated the plum harvest, accounting for more than a third of the total pro-
duction. As recently as the mid-1990s, they were still as much as 10 percent of the harvest.
Today they make up less than 1 percent. Still, it is a noisy minority - Santa Rosa is one of
the few plum varieties sold by name in grocery stores.
Right next to Burbank's plums, you'll find cutting-edge crosses developed by Floyd
Zaiger, Burbank's modern-day counterpart. Zaiger has revolutionized the plum business
by crossing plums and apricots to come up with the Pluot (he owns the trademark on the
name). Burbank had tried to cross a plum and an apricot, but his plumcot varieties were all
either poor quality or light bearing. Plums account for the majority of the lineage in these
crosses. Zaiger also has trademarked the Aprium, which refers to similar crosses where
apricot characteristics dominate.
The first commercial Pluot was introduced in 1989, and those plum-apricot crosses
now account for as much as a quarter of the plum harvest. The best varieties are Dapple
Dandy (pale maroon skin and creamy red and white flesh, sometimes sold as Dinosaur
Egg), Flavor King (reddish purple skin and red flesh) and Flavor Supreme (greenish ma-
roon skin and red flesh).
W H E R E T H E Y' R E G R OWN: For all intents and purposes, California grows
all of the country's plums, almost entirely in the same part of the Central Valley around
Fresno where peaches and nectarines are grown.
