plum thickets---where are they?

[Banjo picker]

As a kid in Mississippi there was a plum thicket in every nock and cranny....Now it seems they are about as rare as the proverbial hens teeth around here...I travel every state road in the county I live in and I know where there are two...I took a car load out to one of them Sunday evening....They are just starting to get ripe...I was the only one that had ever eaten a wild plum....Seems they are disappearing...Tim  :(

[Tom]

I think they are being cleared by people who consider them a nuisance.   They are going away here too.  But, I still know of some that the developers haven't gotten.  They are on the St. Mary's river and I could spend an entire afternoon getting sick from eating them, Chickasaw Plums.  The good part about being a youngster is that you were told that you had enough.  When you grow up, nobody says anything. :-\ :D

[Clark]

As a kid growing up in northern MN I would find them near old homesteads, always near old homesteads.  Until five minutes ago I thought they were introduced and that was why they were always found where people were. 

Now you got me thinking if there are other places I've seen them not around old homesteads.  So I really can't tell you what the wild plum prefers for soils or anything.  [Brace for horrible pun.]  You got me plum confused about this issue now!

Clark

*Exits, stage left, in humiliation and shame over sharing bad pun.*

[Ron Scott]

Ditto! to what Tom said. Many have been removed from the fractionalized land parcels over the years. We do save and protect any that we find on our timber harvest areas or when doing landowner stewardship plans. They are beneficial to wildlife.

[Bro. Noble]

We have a few wild plum trees in fencerows along the gravel road,  they have green fruit on them now.  We have an old grown up field that was abandoned about 50 years ago that has lots of plum thickets in it.  There are some areas that you have to walk way around because they are so thick.  I'm not sure if they are the same species as the trees (big bushes) that grow in more open areas.  We also have cane thickets that you can't walk through.  I recently saw a post where a member was wondering how to eridicate them.  I also saw in a seed catalogue where they were advertising them 3 plants for $99.  I'd sell some for considerbly less :D :D

[Banjo picker]

I am going to get me some little ones this fall an try to get some started here on the place....Tim

[woodtroll]

We are blessed with many around here. The wife made 15 qts of jam last season. Very good!

[SwampDonkey]

They've become quite rare here. Used to be on fence rows and rock piles. As farms got larger and rock piles were cleared off the plums vanished. I know of only one grove of them and it's on an abandoned field around a rock pile. I tried to grow new ones off seed, they never germinated. Some day I will go get more and just put them in the ground instead of pots and let nature work her magic. ;D

[chain]

Our Conservation Dept. offers wild plum in seedling orders and also part of a 'quail bundle', of a variety of shrubs. I'm trying to establish a few plum thickets.

[Banjo picker]

Thats a good deal ...I wonder if Ms does that?  I got the perfect spot  (I think) to put some....Of the thickets I have seen or rember most are in pretty much full sun...Tim