Valor

Valor is a premium Canadian plum variety, developed in 1933. at the prestigious Vineland Institute, the Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario, and released into wide commercial production in 1967. It was created through a successful crossing of Imperial Epineuse and Grand Duke. Due to its exceptional, giant fruit size, premium flesh quality, outstanding transportability, and late ripening season, it is considered one of the most valued and profitable late table plum varieties on the world market.

It is a partially, or incompletely, self-fertile variety. It can set a moderate portion of the crop with its own pollen, but in order to achieve maximum, regular, and economically justified yields, the presence of compatible pollinator varieties in the orchard is required. Stanley has proven to be the best and field-tested pollinator, as it overlaps ideally with Valor during the flowering stage. It flowers medium-late, abundantly, and over a long period.

The tree is moderately vigorous to vigorous, with strong scaffold branches that form an attractive, semi-spreading, moderately dense, and broad-rounded canopy. It enters the fruiting stage very early, often setting its first fruit as early as the third year after planting. Once it starts bearing, with adequate cross-pollination, it produces regular, stable, and exceptionally high yields. It responds very well to standard pruning aimed at maintaining an optimal balance of growth, canopy illumination, and regular renewal of fruiting wood.

It belongs to the group of late autumn plum varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it ripens in the first half of September, usually between September 5 and 15, around ten days after the commercial variety Stanley.

Harvesting takes place during the first half of September. The fruit ripens fairly uniformly on the tree and is characterized by the notable ability to remain on the branch for a long time after full maturity without dropping, which significantly extends the harvest period and allows prolonged marketing of fresh plums at a time when most other varieties are no longer available.

It is characterized by exceptionally good long-term storage ability. In fresh condition, it can be successfully kept in cold storage for 3 to even 4 weeks, retaining full freshness, juiciness, and flesh firmness. Due to its exceptionally firm, fleshy fruit and resistant skin, it tolerates picking, rough mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport perfectly, without the risk of crushing or juice leakage. It is primarily a premium table variety for fresh consumption and export, while in industry it is highly valued for deep freezing, cutting into halves, and drying.

The fruit is large to very large, with an average weight of 45 to over 50 g, while with premium agricultural practice individual fruit can reach over 60 g. It is uniform on the tree and regular in shape, ovoid-oval. The skin is firm and smooth, dark blue to highly attractive royal-purple in color, and completely covered with a dense, rich, light blue waxy bloom. At full maturity, the flesh is amber-yellow, very firm, compact, fleshy, and exceptionally juicy. The taste is premium, rich, and full, characterized by a perfect balance of high sugar content and fine, refreshing acidity, with a pronounced, refined aroma. The stone is medium-sized, and the variety belongs to the group of true freestone plums: it separates from the flesh completely easily, smoothly, and cleanly.

It shows excellent overall field resistance. It is characterized by high tolerance to Plum pox virus, as well as admirable natural resistance to bacterioses and bacterial leaf spot, Xanthomonas. It shows outstanding resistance of the wood and flower buds to harsh winter frosts and temperature fluctuations. In humid and rainy autumns before harvest, it requires standard preventive chemical protection against Monilinia and fruit rot.

Our plum fruit trees are produced on the highly compatible, standard rootstock Myrobalan plum, Prunus cerasifera, with which this Canadian variety achieves a perfect graft union, excellent tree longevity, and outstanding adaptability to different soil types.