Cultivar 343: Supreme

Supreme is a University of Saskatchewan plum introduced in 1960. Sources describe it as an early prairie selection with yellow to yellow blushed fruit and very high eating quality.[S1] [S3] Sources describe its background as a native plum crossed with Prunus salicina. The prairie cultivar index gives this more specifically as P. nigra x P. salicina.[S1] [S3]

In the Saskatchewan program, the introduction appears as selection P58-103, released or recorded under the name Supreme in 1960.[S3] The available records tie it directly to the University of Saskatchewan. A performance note comes from field conditions without irrigation at Saskatoon, giving it a clear prairie testing context, though no formal hardiness zone is stated in these sources.[S1] [S3]

Sources describe Supreme as a relatively large fruited plum for its class, with fruit up to about 2 inches in diameter, yellow skin with blush, early ripening in late August, and what the 1960 introduction sheet calls the best quality.[S3] A later Saskatchewan source also places Supreme among the yellow orange colored varieties.[S2] The packet does not give flesh color, texture, storage life, or specific culinary uses, but the quality note suggests it was remembered more for fruit quality than for novelty.[S3]

The main caution in the surviving record is productivity. One Saskatchewan source appears to list Supreme among low yielding varieties, though that reading is less certain than the 1960 introduction note.[S2] Beyond that, the present sources do not give a fuller tree description, disease record, or bearing habit.

In broader lineage terms, Supreme belongs to the prairie plum breeding stream that used native plum material and Japanese plum ancestry to produce better fruit for western Canadian conditions.[S1] [S3] Its value in the archive is that it shows a clear University of Saskatchewan effort to combine prairie adaptation with larger, earlier, better quality yellow fruit.[S1] [S3]

Summary source basis

• S1: An index of fruit cultivars tested or developed on the Canadian prairies.
• S2: hortfacts_1976_3.pdf
• S3: University of Saskatchewan fruit introductions 1959-1960

This summary currently draws chiefly from University of Saskatchewan fruit introductions 1959-1960, with 2 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“Listed among low-yielding varieties.”
— ^[3]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• P. nigra x P. salicina.
• Parentage listed as Native x P. salicina, mixed open pollinations.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• P58-103 Supreme Native x P. salicina. Mixed open pollinations 1960 fruit up to 2" in diameter under field conditions, without irrigation at Saskatoon; blushed yellow and of the best quality, season early (late August).University of Saskatchewan fruit introductions 1959-1960, p6
• P58-103 Supreme Native x P. salicina. Mixed open pollinations 1960 fruit up to 2" in diameter under field conditions, without irrigation at Saskatoon; blushed yellow and of the best quality, season early (late August).University of Saskatchewan fruit introductions 1959-1960, p6
• P58-103 Supreme Native x P. salicina. Mixed open pollinations 1960 fruit up to 2" in diameter under field conditions, without irrigation at Saskatoon; blushed yellow and of the best quality, season early (late August).University of Saskatchewan fruit introductions 1959-1960, p6
• P58-103 Supreme Native x P. salicina. Mixed open pollinations 1960 fruit up to 2" in diameter under field conditions, without irrigation at Saskatoon; blushed yellow and of the best quality, season early (late August).University of Saskatchewan fruit introductions 1959-1960, p6

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context