Flowering plum ok for smokewood?

[JD McGee]

Winter storms took out a few major branches on one of our flowering plum trees this winter...so today I hard pruned it. Now I have a chitload of potential smokewood...if "flowering" plum is ok to use...I'm not sure. The tree bears fruit on occasion but I've never tasted it. Thoughts?

 

[dbeast420]

IIRC,the flowering pear is considered usable so your plum probably would too.

Smoke up something small and give it a try

 

[CB]

The biggest concern with any ornamental landscape tree is the extent of exposure to pesticides. If it's been routinely sprayed, you may want to contact the service that sprays to see what they recommend as to lifetime of the ingredients, or read the bottle if it was a DYI.

I'm not all wired up about this, but it just stands to reason that "bad for bugs = bad for eating" until such time as it degrades, weathers, dissolves, or what have you.

 

[JD McGee]

The biggest concern with any ornamental landscape tree is the extent of exposure to pesticides. If it's been routinely sprayed, you may want to contact the service that sprays to see what they recommend as to lifetime of the ingredients, or read the bottle if it was a DYI.

I'm not all wired up about this, but it just stands to reason that "bad for bugs = bad for eating" until such time as it degrades, weathers, dissolves, or what have you.

This tree is in my back yard...next to a salmon spawning stream...it has never seen a pesticide...nor has the yard.

 

[ushi]

throw a branch or two on some coals. Give it a whiff. The nose always knows.