This variety is generally regarded as one of the valuable native plums but in New York it is surpassed by a number of other plums of its species in size of fruit and color though the quality is very good. We must rank it in this State as second rate among Americanas. Ocheeda was found by P. L. Hardow in 1872 growing wild on the banks of Ocheeda Lake, Minnesota, and in 1892 was introduced by H. J. Ludlow of Worthington, Minnesota.
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, unproductive; branches shaggy, thorny, with large lenticels; branchlets willowy, pubescent; leaves folded upward, oval, nearly two inches wide, three and one quarter inches long; margin coarsely and doubly serrate; petiole densely covered with short hairs; blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, seven-eighths inch across, dull white; borne in scattering clusters almost entirely on one-year-old wood, many lateral buds remaining undeveloped, the bare limbs carrying tufts or clusters of blossoms, in threes or fours; petals long-obovate, nearly three times as long as wide, tapering to long claws, reddish at the base; stigma distinctly reddish when the flowers first open.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period long; one inch by seven-eighths inch in size, ovate or roundish-ovate, slightly oblique, dull light to dark carmine over a yellow ground, somewhat mottled, overspread with thick bloom; skin slightly astringent; flesh dark golden-yellow, tender, melting, sweet, aromatic, pleasant in flavor; fair to good; stone dark colored, nearly free, three quarters inch by one-half inch in size, roundish-oval, turgid with smooth surfaces; ventral suture markedly winged.
OCTOBER
Prunus triflora
1. Cornell Sta. Bul. 106:58. 1896. 2. Cal. State Bd. Hort. 52. 1897-98. 3. Am. Gard. 20:162 fig. 1899. 4. Rural N. Y. 59:104, 690. 1900. 5. Am. Gard. 21:36, 660. 1900. 6. Nat. Nur. 8:109, 123. 1900. 7. Waugh Plum Cult. 139. 1901. 8. Rural N. Y. 62:756. 1903. 9. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:250 fig., 256, 257. 1905. 10. Mass. Sta. An. Rp. 17:160. 1905.
October Purple 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. October Purple 7.
There are but few late plums in Prunus triflora worth cultivating and one of the needs of horticulture is a late plum of superior quality in this species. At present October is the nearest approach to the plum desired but because of several faults it falls considerably short of filling the need. The fruits are large, attractive-looking, fairly suitable for dessert, very good for culinary purposes, hang well to the tree and keep and ship much better than the average Triflora variety; but still they are not far enough from mediocrity to make the variety especially desirable. The trees are well shaped, usually robust and healthy and the fruit is well borne on lateral spurs distributed over the old wood; but in New York, at least, the trees are very tardy in coming in bearing and cannot be depended upon to bear satisfactory crops regularly—a fatal fault in a Triflora plum. October might be sparingly planted in New York to the pleasure of the amateur and possibly to the profit of the commercial fruit-grower who has a good local market.
October is said to be a cross of Satsuma and a seedling Triflora plum; it was first fruited by Luther Burbank in 1892 and was introduced by Stephen Hoyt’s Sons, New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1897. The variety was named October Purple by Burbank but “Purple” has been dropped in accordance with the rules of the American Pomological Society.