Kaga Plum (Spring 2027)

This is our first year growing Kaga, so everything below is secondhand until we get more long-term data from our own mother trees.

Overview

Kaga is one of N.E. Hansen's old South Dakota hybrid plums. Bob Purvis calls it an "excellent pollenizer for other hybrid plums," and that's the main reason to plant it, though the fruit is good for preserves too.

Origin and History

Hansen bred Kaga at the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station from the same parents as Hanska: a wild northwestern American plum (Prunus americana) crossed with Prunus simonii, the apricot plum of China. Hansen gave the introduction year as 1909, and Hedrick's The Plums of New York (1911) says 1910. According to Hansen, the name is Sioux for "pitch a tent." He wrote that Kaga and Hanska were "much alike in fruit and rapidity of growth," but "many prefer the Kaga as a better annual bearer than Hanska."

Fruit and Uses

Bob Purvis describes the fruit as "small to medium, bluish-black, very meaty, best used in preserves," ripening in early September in east-central Minnesota. Hansen described Hanska as bright red with a heavy blue bloom and said Kaga's fruit was much like it, so the color may vary with who's describing it. This is a plum for jam, sauce and cooking more than for eating out of hand.

Growth Habit and Spacing

Purvis calls the tree small with a compact growth habit. Ours are on Prairie Red plum semi-dwarf rootstock, which is more uniform than native plum and tends to top out around 15 feet here. Plan on 12 to 15 feet between trees.

Pollination

Kaga needs a pollenizer itself, and it's a good one for other hybrid plums. Hansen wrote that plums "do best in mixed orchards of several varieties." Toka, South Dakota, Native American Plum, Kahinta, Superior and Black Ice all work.

Cold Hardiness

We haven't found a documented survival temperature for Kaga itself. W.T. Macoun listed it among the promising Hansen hybrids for southern Manitoba, and Purvis fruits it in east-central Minnesota. Its sister Hanska, from the same cross, came through -38F in Stevensville on January 12, 2024. We've listed Kaga at zone 3.

Representative illustration, not Kaga itself: Hanska, Kaga's sister seedling from the same cross. Hansen said Kaga's fruit was much like it. Illustration: “Hanska” by Elsie Lower Pomeroy, USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library (POM00004907). Public domain. Cropped from the original.

About the photo: this isn’t Kaga itself. Photos of Kaga are either under copyright or simply unavailable, so we picked the open-source image that looks closest to the fruit. Photo: “A close up of some fruit” by Anna Evans, via Unsplash, under the Unsplash License.