Skip to content
The Patent Garden

US Plant Patent PP14465

Big Red

Plum tree named ‘Big Red’

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Patent expired April 4, 2022. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.

Twenty years from the filing date would end on February 11, 2022. This patent earned 52 days of term adjustment for delay at the Patent Office, which is why it runs longer.

Figure 1 of US plant patent PP14465, the photograph of Big Red printed in the patent.
Figure 1 from US Plant Patent PP14465, reproduced as printed. Photographs in a plant patent are taken by the applicant. Reproduction of the patent document is permitted; the image is shown whole and uncropped for that reason.

The record

Patent number
PP14465
Filed
February 11, 2002
Granted
January 13, 2004
Expires
April 4, 2022
Inventor
ZAIGER GARY NEIL; GARDNER LEITH MARIE; ZAIGER GRANT GENE

Abstract

A new and distinct variety of plum tree ( Prunus salicina ). The following features of the tree and its fruit are characterized with the tree budded on ‘Citation’ Rootstock (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,112) grown on Handford sandy loam soil with Storie Index reading 95, in USDA Hardiness Zone 9, near Modesto, Calif., with standard commercial fruit growing practices, such as pruning, thinning, spraying, irrigation and fertilization. Its novelty consists of the following combination of desirable features: 1. Heavy and regular production of fruit. 2. Fruit with good flavor and eating quality. 3. Fruit with an attractive high red skin color. 4. Fruit with relative uniform large size throughout the tree. 5. Fruit with a good balance between sugar and acid, having high soluble solids, average of 16.3° Brix.

Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.

We claim: 1. A new and distinct variety of plum tree, substantially as illustrated and described, characterized by its large size, vigorous upright growth and being a productive and regular bearer of very large, clingstone fruit with good flavor and eating quality and, in comparison to the ‘Friar’ Plum (non-patented), the fruit is more globose in shape compared to an oblate shape, has red skin color compared to blue black and is approximately 1 week later in maturity.

Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP14465 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.