Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Opata Chum Bareroot

Species: Prunus pumila var. besseyi (Western sandcherry) x P. salicina (Japanese Plum)

History: Opata was developed by Dr. N.E. Hansen who was a professor of horticulture at South Dakota State University from 1895 to 1950. He helped pioneer chum development in an effort to create plants hardy enough to survive in the northern prairies. Opata is the Sioux word for 'bouquet', following Hansen's tradition of naming his native plant crosses after words from local indigenous cultures.  

Why We Grow It: Opata produces a red chum with yellow flesh that is freestone, firm, juicy, and considered to be one of the better tasting chums. It is pleasantly sweet with only a hint of acidity. It is good for fresh eating as well as jams, jellies, preserves, and pies. Like other chums, the shrub itself is compact, cold hardy, and relatively free of pests and disease.

$26.00

Size:

Out of stock

Fruit Traits:

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, preserving

Fruit Size: Small

Storage: Keeps about a week in the fridge.

Harvest: August - Middle

Plant Traits:

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 2

Soil Preferance: Sandy loam and loam, like plenty of organic material. Prefers average to moist conditions with well-drained soils, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring.

Flowering Time: Spring

Pollination Requirements: Requires a pollinator of a different chum variety or western sandcherry that blooms around the same time

Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habit: Produces shrub that reaches 2.5m tall. Hardy and generally resistant to disease.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of plants picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

When Will My Order Be Ready?

Most of our bareroot plants and tubers are only available for spring planting! Only bareroot apples and pears are available for fall planting.

Spring orders are generally ready to be picked up or shipped out anywhere from late March to late May! We will be in touch in the spring once your order is ready to go. Orders placed in the spring might not be ready for 1-2 weeks as this is a very busy time of year for us.

Our chums are divided into the following grades:
• 1 year plant - 15-35cm
• 2 year plant - 35-80cm

All of these heights exclude the roots since some plants will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our plants will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively.

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

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