Cultivar 455: Dewolf Seedling

Dewolf Seedling is a South Dakota seedling plum remembered for unusually large, handsome fruit and very good dessert quality.[S1] It was not a named breeding program release in the modern sense. J. DeWolf of Letcher, South Dakota, wrote in a letter dated September 7, 1904 that he had received tame seedling plums from C. W. Gurney of Yankton in 1901.[S1]

Its origin goes back to pits saved from the plum orchard of H. J. Gurney at Elk Point, South Dakota. The bulletin describes that orchard as about fourteen acres and the largest plum orchard in the state.[S1] The seedling was part of a local search for superior hardy plums. C. W. Gurney offered a $100 premium for fruit from these seedlings that could match DeSoto in flavor or Hawkeye and Quaker in size and beauty.[S1] The source does not identify the exact parent cross. It only gives this orchard seedling origin.[S1]

The fruit was described from ten samples as very large, about one and one half by one and three eighths inches. It had a regular roundish to nearly oval form, a flat apex, a very shallow cavity, a glossy surface, and attractive dark red skin slightly marbled with dark yellow on the shaded side.[S1] It had some blue bloom and many large, conspicuous dots, and some specimens were an even darker red.[S1] The skin was rather thin and free from astringency. The flesh was dark yellow and tender. The flavor was sweet and juicy, with quality rated very good.[S1] The pit was free, roundish oval, and somewhat flattened.[S1]

The bulletin gives no clear season, storage, tree habit, or disease notes for Dewolf Seedling.[S1] It also does not state a hardiness zone directly, though its selection and description in South Dakota place it in the context of upper Great Plains plum growing.[S1] Dewolf Seedling matters less as a fully documented commercial cultivar than as evidence of how many promising plums were raised from orchard seedlings on the northern plains and judged against standards such as DeSoto, Hawkeye, and Quaker.[S1]

Summary source basis

• S1: Plums in South Dakota

This summary currently draws chiefly from Plums in South Dakota.

Featured source descriptions

“J. DeWolf of Letcher, South Dakota, reported in a letter dated September 7, 1904 that he had received tame seedling plums from C. W. Gurney of Yankton in 1901.”
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“Form regular, roundish approaching oval; apex flat; cavity wide and very shallow; suture a line; surface somewhat glossy.”
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“In some specimens the red color became very dark, and the dots varied considerably in size.”
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“Skin rather thin and free from astringency; flesh dark yellow and tender; flavor sweet and juicy; quality very good.”
— ^[1]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• No direct breeding_cross claim text yet.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• J. DeWolf... received a lot of tame seedling plums from C. W. Gurney... one raising plums from these seedlings equal to DeSoto in flavor or in size and beauty to Hawkeye and Quaker.Plums in South Dakota, p37
• J. DeWolf... received a lot of tame seedling plums from C. W. Gurney... one raising plums from these seedlings equal to DeSoto in flavor or in size and beauty to Hawkeye and Quaker.Plums in South Dakota, p37
• J. DeWolf... received a lot of tame seedling plums from C. W. Gurney... one raising plums from these seedlings equal to DeSoto in flavor or in size and beauty to Hawkeye and Quaker.Plums in South Dakota, p37
• J. DeWolf... received a lot of tame seedling plums from C. W. Gurney... one raising plums from these seedlings equal to DeSoto in flavor or in size and beauty to Hawkeye and Quaker.Plums in South Dakota, p37

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context