Plums 2015

Scott how long did the RdM take to fruit? I grafted a piece from the usda two yrs ago and it is a nice 4-foot bush already–to my limited eye it looks pretty vigorous, although i know that itself can count against settling down to actually fruit.

Still curious how long yours took, given mine will likely add another year or two because i am up in zone 5…

Planted in 2006… ten years. It started flowering two years ago and had a few fruit last year that squirrels got.

Wow…i’ll be picking from my Rascal by the time that thing fruits on its own.

I do have a coe’s golden w/ 2 gages already on it i planned on frankentree-ing, may pop that and Metz onto the coes so I hopefully see fruit in 4 yrs or so…

Recollecting things a bit more I didn’t do any limb bending for several years on my Reine de Mirabelles, and it was in a very close planting. I would probably have gotten fruit in 6-7 years with limb bending or wider apart planting.

Or the French probably wouldn’t have kept it going.

I’ll third that. Similar to Scott, I had a bit more come through the early frost. But I lost almost everything to bugs and animals. I got about 10 Toka, which held up very well through the frost and the bugs. I got some, at which point the animals saw “their” crop being pick and devoured the rest. I suspect that it was raccoon as well and am attempting to remedy the situation (10 so far in a few weeks).

Since I don’t have any more from the yard, here is what I’m eating from the farmer’s market and store.

The Stanley haven’t been as bad as past years- maybe the spring frost was an involuntary thinning. 16.5 brix, if I let it sit for a week or so.

The Empress are very good, like always. Best so far was 21 brix.

For President, I was very surprised to find the cultivar listed on the sign at Stew Leonards (local grocery). I had just gotten a big bag of Empress at the FM, but still had to pick up a few. Here is a pic of the one above after I opened it. 23 brix and very good. My memory of it isn’t perfect, but I think this one is similar to the Valors that I had at Alan’s place last year.

I think that huge, sweet, firm Euro plums must be my favorite fruit. Though high end cherries and nectarines are pretty good too…

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It’s good for the consumer that at least some big commercial growers of E plums actually lets them ripen before harvest. Those likely were from CA, unless Stew listed them as locally sourced.

The coons got most of my good Valors this year- not many on the tree and for the first time the culprit preferred the plums to the Marshmallows when there were dead ripe plums on the tree. The next night he went for the marshmallows- that would be his last supper. The empress tree in my orchard seems to have suffered some kind of cambium damage, and while holding a full crop their weren’t enough leaves to make really good fruit.

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Alan and @BobVance,
When do your Castleton ripen, please? Mine start to turm purple but I want to find out how much longer I have to wait.

@scottfsmith, when do your Coe’s Golden Drop ripen, please?

Thanks, all.

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I’ve never ripened one myself (I hope to this year), but I get them at the farmer’s market during the last two weeks of August. If yours are turning blue now, there could be a PC bite.

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Bob is correct on both counts, although some plums fail without obvious signs of insect attack- no tunneling or even surface damage. When the plums turn purple ahead of the rest in early Aug. it is usually PC damage.

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Hello Scott,

never heard of that variety. Could you please describe it a little more thorough?

Mirabelles typically are quite small fruits similar to a myrobalane, which often leads to confusion to inexperienced growers (doesn’t apply to you of course), yellow ground color with red blush (often speckled), freestone and very sweet (no tart skin). They are not that juicy. There are some varieties but they all are quite similar. The standard is Mirabelle de Nancy. And thats pretty much the only variety you can purchase everywhere looking for a Mirabelle.

Gages on the other hand -as you of course know- are typically bigger than Mirabelles, often clingstone, very sweet and juicy. There are a lot of varieties with different colors. The standard here is Green Gage (not the same as Bavay Green Gage). It is smaller than most Gages but very tasty (very high sugar, juicy).

Since historically there were a lot of different Mirabelles grown in europe but today most are forgotten, I’d like to find out if your Reine des Mirabelles is a known variety here and if I can find it (and if it actually is a Mirabelle or a Gage plum).

I hope its not too much of a hassle, thank you very much in advance.

Norman

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@BobVance and @alan,
Thanks for your responses, although that is not what I want to hear :tired_face:

Since Castleton has set like mad for me this year, I hope some will ripen when they should for me.

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It is an old variety and was also known as Königin der Mirabellen:

http://www.obstsortendatenbank.de/index.php?id1=img&page=articles/img_view.php&osw=nda&osi=koenigin_der_mirabellen

It is considered a mirabelle-gage cross but to me it is more like a Gage. This is based on my other Gage and Mirabelle plums that fruited (I grew Metz and Nancy at one point, plus I have three Gages fruiting). I have an apricot that came to me considered a peach-apricot cross and I think it is only because it is so big. Similarly I wonder if RdM is just a Gage plum that is smaller so someone called it a cross. Or it could be a cross, I think they are both hexaploids right?

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Thank you again Scott, you even did the research. I should have thought about that myself, since “Reine” and “Königin” are the same word in different languages (french and german).

I asked some people with profound knowledge about plums about that Königin der Mirabellen. It seems it is a “lost” historical variety. No one knew where to get it. No one could tell if it actually is a Mirabelle.

Where did you get it from? I’m perplex about the fact you are able to aquire historical varieties of E.plums that are believed to be lost here. Your collection of plums is awesome by the way.

Sometimes varieties are lost because there simply are better varieties with similar characteristics. According to your description of the fruit that shouldn’t be the reason in this case.

I am interested in this variety but it seems there is no easy way to get it here.

I actually don’t know if Mirabelles and Gages are both hexaploid. For Mirabelles on wikipedia you can read its 2n=16. I don’t know if that is correct. It should be 6n=48. Other sources say its 2n=48…

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Its been in the US a long time, since 1911 in the Geneva collection. Maybe it was lost in Europe. If you know the quarantine procedure you may be able to get it imported from the US.

My knowledge of genetics is not good but mirabelles always looked like Euro plums in their leaf shape and tree growth etc so I would expect they are closely related.

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Had time for a quick check on Castletont this morning. Just like you and Alan said, oozes on many Castletons in the bags, no less. I do not know how those !#@&! PC got in!!!

I should not have spoken too soon. Not sure how many I could save until ripening time. So mad!!!

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I haven’t had fruit off it in a long time thanks to all the PC’s and rot. My vague memory is it is a mid-season Euro plum.

This year I kept up the Surround on the Euro plums for longer, and I still have a pretty good load in spite of losing about half to PC. One other thing I did this year is a lot more diligence on picking up the falls and hopefully that will mean fewer PC in the next season.

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I picked up evry fallen fruit ( I don’t have many trees so that is not hard to do.). I am not sure if that help reduce the population. I am sure it help them not to multiply.

All my fruit are bagged. So far, insects were able to get into those bags. Those Castletons do not touch the bags. I should have done Surround covepr sprays ( so many I should have’s).

So far, forecast says it will rain everyday until Sunday. Can’t spray for several days.

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Classic scars. Saw holes on bag ends. Need to staple them very close the the branches. Only a few clen fuit left.

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That is so sad Tippy!!! Mine are on the ground instead and I let the rabbits eat them. As you will see when you visit, like you I net entire trees. :frowning:

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