My guess is it is a cross of Green Gage and some other Gage plum. It is very similar to my Reine Claude de Bavay and not to my Mirabelles. I don’t remember whether it was free or not. Since I don’t have the Mirabelles around anymore I have a fading memory of them. Hopefully some other people will grow this plum and add their opinions on what its origin might be. It produces a massive bloom, more like the Mirabelles. So maybe it is in fact a cross.
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Yes, that’s what old books (19th and early 20th century) say. I would assume that the modern classification is more accurate.
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Just a little side note is this year I got some M. d. Nancy scion. Having no E. Plums I put it on my necta plum. It’s been about a month and 2 of 3 scion took. Not sure if long term it will keep? Also have Red Haven peach scion on the tree. The Nancy scion grew a six inch long branch so far.
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It is a very fast growing tree. I have a hard time keeping mine from 6-7’ tall.
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Hi Alan,
So, Castleton should not turn purple until early August?
Some of mine start to turn now. Too early?
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No, they are starting to turn now, but the first to ripen are usually insect riddled garbage. There is a lot of turning purple before the plums get sugar sweet- which they should. Over 20% brix is normal for prune plums
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I sort of like how a few bug-ridden fruits ripen early, it gives an early sample and if the squirrels take them later you at least had an idea of what it was. Those early ones are usually not up to the final quality. I had a few bug-ridden Pearl plums already. Watch for worms when munching! 
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I’m a ways from my first E. plums, which right now is Oullins, although I discovered an unlabeled variety in my nursery that is a decent purple that ripens with Shiro. My Early Magic are very good- probably the best of my established J. plums that have a decent crop. Only Shiro is full this year. Actually a light crop of J. plums from a mature tree is a blessing. I can only put away so much fruit. The Shiro is to distract birds from more important fruit, although I’m grafting it over to a couple of experiments, including Great Yellow.
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Thank you Alan and @scottfsmith,
Had I known that the bug-damaged plums are able to hang on until almost the end, I’d not have taken so many of them off a while back.
Last week, I picked off one and out of curiosity, I cut it open. The flesh became translucent and it had mildly sweet taste. Now, I let all the bug-ridden hang as long as they can. I picked all dropped fruit and throw them out with trash.
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Last year I had one lone President plum that turned purple and dropped way too early but tasted pretty good. I didn’t know why at the time. Now I’m glad I left some of the damaged ones hanging on. Once I get better at getting good clean fruit I’ll abandon this practice, but for now it is better than nothing. Also, I have just a few clean Castletons from a graft and the very tops are starting to turn purple on them.
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This is my first year getting Euro plums. So picking time is unfamiliar to me. I have Castleton, Coe’s Golden Drop and Mirabelle Parfume de Septembre, all have fruit this year. Very excited even though half of them were done in by bugs. Hopefully, I could have some good one by the time they ripen.
Mirabelle plums are so small, they look like small, round grapes to me!!!
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If the bug is curculio you want the fruits outta there as they will likely drop, so you have to be really sure curc season is completely done before you leave fruits. For OFM its generally OK to let them hang, they usually stay in the fruit until it drops. Curc worms seem to “jump” out of the fruit to the ground sometimes, I don’t see OFM doing that.
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When I cut them up, most are OFM worms. They walked away. Thanks for the knowledge.
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On the other hand, if you have amelanchier trees on your property or in the very nearby hills as natives (I have both) it may not matter what you do with PC infested fruit. I also mange orchards with branches of big apple trees literally touching next door trees (from the original ancient orchard) that are unsprayed and riddled with every pest known to apple (slight exaggeration to emphasize a point). These sites haven’t seemed to require any greater input for control than sites without all this added pressure.
I’m not watching my Surround managed orchards closely, so this may only be because I’m using synthetic controls at the sites of which I speak.
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Scott, have you perfected how to get production out of close spaced Euro plums? I was pruning today and found myself removing a ton of wood on some 7-8’ spaced Euros. I ended up making them into 3-5 branched open centers, getting rid of most of the side branches.
These have been in ground since spring 2016 with no fruit yet. Though I also have some from 2014 which have only produced a few. I’ve been assuring that I need more sun to get to any given branch…
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I ended up getting them to produce by getting enough branches growing horizontally, mainly by tying down. I had double trouble on my original planting, they were close and had only 5-6 hours of sun a day. Those took forever to fruit. My newer stand is in more sun and I tied them down right away, those fruited in 3-4 years.
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@scottfsmith I found some really nice Santa Rosa trees in local Lowes today. They are potted, not bare root. $42 for 1 inch caliber, $25 for 0.5 inch trunk. You said it was a stingy producer in your yard. How about its vigor? Initially I was thinking to get a Shiro, grow it and eventually create a multi-grafted plum tree. Shiro was recommended because it has very strong vigor. But I can’t find Shiro in local store this year (I saw them before). So I am thinking to get this Santa Rosa.
Another variety available is Methley plum. It’s any early type, which I like because less spray before getting the fruits. Just in case I change my mind down the road, I can still have a decent plum tree at least.
If I where to be starting a Multi graft tree I would go for the Shiro. I have a multi graph with Shiro and Santa Rosa. Shiro is by far the most dominating limb 3-4x the diameter of the other graphs. What more thats 2 years after a Nor’easter fell a tree from the woods behind my house and removed 90% of the Shiro is still 3-4x bigger. Based on flower buds the Santa Rosa might have the lowest bud count of all of my graft, but that might not translate into fruit set. I have yet to taste either my Shiro or Santa Rosa, I am hoping to this year, but the Shiro set 40 fruit on its first leaf in the ground, all pilfered while I was on vacation. A middle but long bloomer Santa Rosa f a universal pollinator for all but the earliest plum flowers.
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I once had a Methley. It self pollinated with heavy fruit set with great flavor. The big problem was it was a Black Knot magnet. I had to cut it down.
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If black knot is a problem where you are (most of the humid region it is), you should probably avoid Methely, although I can grow it at some sites with frequent knot removal. Santa Rosa does not have as nice a spreading form and is more prone to cambium freeze injury than Shiro, but that shouldn’t be a problem in Z7. If it’s what’s easily available you might go for it, but why not just order Shiro on-line and bare root for half the money and just a whip?
J plums grow very fast on myro and Shiro is an early producer. 3 years to first crop.
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