Plums

[Bryce]

Ok gentlemen, you guys are some of the smartest cats I know so I figured I would come here first.

I have two plum trees in my front yard. The one with the bigger leaves produces very small plums and excellent bow staves. The little leaf produces 0 fruit and also produces straight bow staves( have yet to make a bow from this tree though) now I'm no tree expert. I know enough to get by and I know my local native bow woods, bc i was forced as a child to know them, along with there density, tension and compressive strengths all that jazz. 
So here's my question. Is there any real evident differences between these two species?
Should I treat them as if they where the same?
Why does one get fruit and not the other?



-Pinecone

[rossfactor]

So I'm guessing those are different cultivars of Purple leaf plums.  Are the leaves alway purple on both trees?

Here's a blurb I found on PL plum cultivars:

"The most common cultivar of the purple leaf plum tree is P. cerasifera 'Atropurpurea,' which grows rapidly up to 30 feet in height. Thundercloud is another common cultivar, growing up to 25 feet tall and wide. The Newport cultivar -- P. cerasifera 'Newportii' -- grows to just 15 feet tall and wide, while the Frankthrees or Mt. St. Helens variety is similar to the Newport cultivar but is faster-growing. Other less-common purple leaf plum tree cultivars include Purple Pony, which grows to about 12 feet tall and Krauter Vesuvius."

I bet both trees will make excellent bows.  In my opinion (I know I'm biased) and limited experience (I've only used a dozen or so different woods), there is no better bow wood than purple leaf plum. Works easy, is beautiful, strong in tension and compression, takes heat tempering very well, as well as steam bending, I also find it is fine in my humid environment.  And it makes fast, durable bows. That said, I've got a yew recurve in the works that I'm quite fond of, but...

Gabe

[Bryce]

the smaller leaves, when young are green. but they turn purple within a week or so.
p.s. i love your plum bows, very nice.

-Pinecone