A few of my BP are staring to ripen. I find the fruit kind of bland, a bit sweet, and a little astringency in the skin.
One nifty thing is that one of my plants is ripening golden fruit!
4 Likes
Zazlev,
Yes my largest is 6 1/2 feet tall.
Jesse,
Golds and purple are relatively common with the golden fruit being the more rare of the two. The differences in ripening times, large pits, small fruits these bushes are known for keep a fruit grower guessing. Here are some pictures from today but keep in mind some of my fruit was ripe a month ago. I’ve eaten these fresh this year.
10 Likes
Here’s mine, holding a few gold ones in my hand which are a bit sweeter than the purple type on the bush.
I am please that the first two bushes seem to be ripening their crop pretty uniformly, I will be able to pick these all at once.
A few other bushes are a week or two behind the early ones shown. Not quite enough to justify processing this year unless I pick at a friend’s bp patch…
7 Likes
Beach plums are looking good JesseS! They are smaller than people think they would be so I’m not sure I would recommend growing them unless like us you have extra land you don’t necessarily need for high production crops. Apprehensively I leave mine as a pet project. I grow many things like buffalo berries that I do for knowledge and health benefits more so than production.
1 Like
That jives with the literature: the rare yellow ones are supposed to taste the best.
1 Like
Matt,
Cornell was who got me interested in these back in 2006 when they began encouraging many farms to grow them via their website Beach Plum (Prunus maritima): Small farm sustainability through crop diversification and value-added products.. I planted a few test plants initially to determine if they could withstand Kansas summers, winters, heavy rainfall and droughts that are common here. Planted my main crop which consisted of a couple of rows about 6-7 years ago. Would love to get a hold of their best scion wood. They were growing them at least several years prior to that. Updates - Beach Plum: Small farm sustainability through crop diversification and value-added products.. I was fascinated with their work! The really rare ones are red beach plums is my understanding. The yellow are definately sweeter and occur much less often. I thought the red were unripe but several sources a red when ripe type exists. The video on the page is about a half hour long but worth watching if your interested in beach plums. I’ve since removed many bushes due to low production in our area but did keep one row of beach plums. Prunus besseyi and prunus tomentoso had a similar fate at my farm where I grew many rows and determined long term canker would be a problem for them and taste and fruit to pulp ratio did not justify the room I devoted to them. Carmine jewel cherries are such a better use of space it’s hard for me to encourage anyone to grow other stone fruits. I will quickly say beach plums have many redeeming qualities such as they are relatively insect free and bloom late which avoids frosts. In areas where they grow naturally I certainly see why they are popular.
2 Likes
When I say my production is not great that should be followed by showing you what production looks like at Cornell. Here are a couple of their beach plum pictures from their orchard Updates - Beach Plum: Small farm sustainability through crop diversification and value-added products.
I was expecting my production to be similar to theirs. I think in time scion wood may be available from them or other sources which is why I left my row in place. Considering grafting over to one or two varieties so they all ripen at the same time which might change everything. Beach plums productivity has been improved drastically by the growers.
2 Likes
I saw a pair of trees in Maryland that were loaded with fruit.
1 Like
If scion wood is available from those you saw Matt that would be the way to go.
1 Like
First harvest, a few more bushes look like they will need another week. Pictured with a few of my last South Dakota plums, these will be made into elderberry/plum jam by my Mom in law.
12 Likes
Jesse-- Beautiful plums.
1 Like
Those look beauftiful. How easy are they to process for making jam? Is there a simple means for pit removal?
Thanks, I bet a cherry pitted would work good, I just squeezed them out and then squished any pulp a off the pit, good thing I only had a couple cups to process!
I ended up using Mrs G’s plum jam recipe for proportions and cooking-
but used my modest beach plum harvest which was supplemented by some South Dakota plums and elderberries, about a third each. Preliminary testing has been quite positve, there is some astringent richness, tart zip, and great color.
4 Likes
jesse, you only have American elders or some euros too? And how are they for keeping clean?
Here there are enough SWD or similar larvae that the wine we made last year I thought of naming something like Elderberry and Maggot–they just kept popping out of the berry pile in my bucket. This year a few bushes I hit late in ditches I just walked away from also, as literally clouds of fruit flies (I assume SWD) erupted from the umbels when you moved them
SWD are a big issue in my elders, I have sambucus canadensis and s nigra(s rubra too). I get some of the early ripening umbels before the flies find them, then sacrifice(pick green, feed to ducks or compost)) much of the crop so that the flies don’t breed like crazy. If it’s windy and or cool during ripening that is a big help. Just leaving the ripe fruit on the plant can make a bad situation worse, I like my grapes more so I’ve been using the elders as a bit of a trap crop. Also freezing the fruit quickly after picking will kill any eggs or larvae that might be there. Harvest more of the blooms for fritters, tea or wine! SWD sucks bigtime😬
1 Like
My later ripening beach plums are getting picked today, so harvesting these goes for around 2 weeks from my early bushes to the latest. Only one needed multiple pickings due to uneven ripening. Some variation in flavor, most have a small amount of astingency that should make for richly flavored preserves, wine. Very little insect or disease issues on the fruit, no sign of SWD, brown rot, curculio, etc making these pretty bomb proof in my yard. Hopefully the two named cultivars ‘Premier’ and ‘Hancock’ produce fruit next year so I can compare them to my seedlings.
I am saving seed to replant in the nursery.
3 Likes
How long does it take for seedlings the fruit I have about eight of them
5 yrs to bear in earnest for me, I might have set them back a bit by doing some early pruning to get mine into more of a tree form rather than the spreading bush they naturally make.
1 Like
I can spare some seed if anyone wants to try growing these…
1 Like