Is this an Ume?

[SeanS]

On my travels today I stumbled upon a small nursery and decided to have a browse. In the back there was a leafless tree (it’s winter here in South Africa) with what appear to be Ume blossoms. The last few leaves also look like what I’ve seen Ume leaves look like online.

So, have I found an Ume?

 

[Nybonsai12]

I’m no expert but do have a few Ume. This looks like Ume to me.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Looks like one to me too.

 

[SeanS]

It costs the equivalent of $43, looks like I’ll be buying an Ume this week!

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Nice trunk, dont look grafted

 

[Canada Bonsai]

It costs the equivalent of $43, looks like I’ll be buying an Ume this week!

Looks like Ume to me. Be sure to pick up some fungicides and pesticides with the tree! A long-lived Ume is one that is sprayed before symptoms appear

 

[SeanS]

Looks like Ume to me. Be sure to pick up some fungicides and pesticides with the tree! A long-lived Ume is one that is sprayed before symptoms appear

Thanks @Canada Bonsai. What are they susceptible to?

 

[Canada Bonsai]

What are they susceptible to?

I'm not familiar with what goes around in South Africa. I spray preventatively and have luckily seen no trouble to date (I follow Bjorn's schedule now, and like it a lot), but I know that some of my customers have had trouble with rust and a number of other unidentifiable diseases (black spots on leaves, sections of leaves turning brown, orange accumulations on the trunk, etc.) and, of course, aphids. I have often heard that Ume and Crabapple as quite disease prone, but I don't mean to scare you! It was just a casual comment about Ume because I noticed the leaves in the pictures you posted weren't in great shape (and it looks like the growers sprays them)

 

[namnhi]

Yes, it is. I have one that I got from Brent that look exactly like that. So sad I didn't take one single picture and this was the first time it bloomed too. The flower is very small and simple compare to other Umes.

 

[19Mateo83]

Awesome nursery find!

 

[Pitoon]

That's a mume. Is there a tag? Grafted?

 

[SeanS]

That's a mume. Is there a tag? Grafted?

No tag, it’s a really small scruffy little nursery that doesn’t look like it gets much traffic and the plants don’t move much either. The only feedback I got from the nursery staff was the price based on the size of nursery bag it’s in.

 

[Shibui]

What are they susceptible to?

Just about every pest and disease known to the plant world. - black spot, brown spot, gummosis, etc, etc.
Pretty much anything that affects apricot or almond will also try to get your prunus mume.

 

[SeanS]

Just about every pest and disease known to the plant world. - black spot, brown spot, gummosis, etc, etc.
Pretty much anything that affects apricot or almond will also try to get your prunus mume.

Thanks @Shibui and @Canada Bonsai . I’m planning on spraying everything with lime sulphur next week once the last of my JMs lose their leaves, so I’ll do the Ume as well once I go pick it up in the next few days

 

[SeanS]

I now have an Ume in my nursery! I’m still in shock that I found it. And I only paid the equivalent of $37.

The base is roughly 8” across, I’ll post some photos tomorrow.

 

[Pitoon]

I now have an Ume in my nursery! I’m still in shock that I found it. And I only paid the equivalent of $37.

The base is roughly 8” across, I’ll post some photos tomorrow.

Good for you! Looking forward to seeing the pics.

 

[SeanS]

Pics as promised, the base is over 8” wide, it seems the trunk was bend over at a young age and is now a massive nebari. What more could one wish for! There are roots coming off of the base radially just under the soil surface.
There are 2 branches coming off of the main trunk just above the first bit of movement so I’ll be cutting back to those in spring. The plant will be going into one of my raised beds to grow out and develop.

 

[yashu]

Score!

 

[SeanS]

More and more blossoms keep on opening up in our home. I had to prune the tree to get it in my car, so I brought all the off-cuts home.
The smell reminds me of pink musk sweets, not sure if you get them outside of South Africa.

 

[SeanS]

Wow! Looking back at the photos from winter, Ume sure do thicken up fast!

This tree got cut back and root pruned before going into one of my grow beds in July of last year when it started to grow. The root ball was worked back to a small disc of dense feeder roots and the bottom was flattened with all heavy roots eliminated. I basically took a large bow saw and sawed horizontally through the nursery bag once I determined where the nebari was. Below are some screenshots from a video I took at the time.

(The root ball was cut back much further after the video)




Since then it’s been rocking and rolling. The first flush produced numerous 1.5m tall dead straight shoots which I’ve since cut back to 2 buds. The cut back produced a second flush of shoots from every remaining bud and doubled the number of branches. Recently I wired the keeper shoots to get some movement into the future primary branches and cut off the first 2 leaves on each shoot.




Here’s a comparison of the 2 existing branches from spring to show the thickening. I cut the yellow branch back to the red line over the weekend.