I’ve decided that the best way to get E. plums that aren’t self fruiting types to set fruit consistently is to have at least two varieties in the same tree. E’s may not be worth growing in KS, but if you can harvest them they are a wonderful addition to an orchard- so diverse, beautiful and SWEET. They also keep well in the fridge for a relatively long spell.
Green Gage seems a bit stingy even with another variety on it, but mine is not in quite full enough sun to reach sublime quality- it is now mostly grafted over to types that can get brix into the 20’s- without sun dawn to dusk. In those conditions it can be an amazingly good plum.
Last year the weather somehow destroyed the general quality of most of my E. plums for the first time. I’m glad this season is looking entirely different and we are actually having drought for the last 3-4 weeks. There is nothing better than timely drought to improve the flavor of fruit.
Two trees, a 6 yr old and a 7 yr old I think. Both set very well this year.
In fact, everything in the yard set very well this year (apples, pears, plum, peaches) but Mirabelle Parfume de Septembre E plum (exhausted from last year).
No worry Mrs. G. I don’t care much about Parfume. They taste sweet but boring. The small fruit does not help either. I‘ve grafted it over with severa varieties.
Your Jongold, and other scions you gave me took. Thank you very much.
The tree has never been very productive and the fruit is hard to sell. Plums in general are hard to sell here, and a plum which doesn’t look ripe is harder.
Most folks here aren’t very adventurous when it comes to trying new fruits. I had a hard time selling flat peaches until I gave enough away. I’ve had some people unwilling to try them for free. I had difficulty selling yellow tomatoes. Nectarines are extremely hard to sell here.
Most of my customers just want yellow peaches, red tomatoes, sweet corn, blackberries, etc. Fruits/veg. traditional for this area.
Mark, I think it’s a travesty what grocery stores sell as stone fruit, and it turns customers off. If you grow up thinking plums are either over-firm or mushy, bland, tasteless, odorless things you have no reason to want to try another! Peaches? Just as worse. Nectarine are just crunch.
back 10years ago, a co-worker told me the green one are very sweet. I decided to try and yes indeed it was sweet. But I see less and less the green plum in grocery store.
But, there are always some people like to explore and some people stone set their way of living. You only can influence the explorers
This year, my Blenheim Apricot set a ton of fruit. I spent every day of 2-3 weeks thinning it. I worked on some branches everyday! I still ended up with way too much. Branches are now touching the ground and the tree does not have much foliage for some reason.
In my NY sun, the fruit would probably be bland without adequate sugar. A high Leaf to fruit ratio is very important. I think the reason you have little foliage this year is because your tree fiercely over set and fruit is an energy sink that stunts vegetative growth. You probably would have been better off thoroughly thinning one branch at a time. I tell my customers who do their own thinning that if it is too time consuming, just get one scaffold in a tree done right. On a mature tree, that’s probably all the fruit you can eat fresh anyway.
@mrsg47 about two months ago they had green gage plum for 7.99 a pound said New Zealand bought three only one would I say was pretty good, other two were just ok. Went back two weeks later they were gone.
I absolutely needed to thin more. The fruits are tiny compared to last year. But here’s the deal, I thinned like crazy over a loooooong time. Next time, I’ll take out all fruits from thin branches.
I bet if you use a 12” a fruit rule, you could down alarge number down. Also, any fruit on twigs that could not carry the weight. Took the. All out.
I thought I thinned tons of peaches. Still more to thin. It is not how many you thinned out. It’s how many you want to keep. For peaches, I hardly keep any fruit where there are no leaves. I’d like to know how well your tree will produce next year.
I really thought I was done with thinning fruit by June. Turned out, there were too many apples and A. pears. Thinning now is rather late but I need to save those branches.
Thinned out about 140 A pear and 70 Gold Rush apples (very clean inside zip lock bags)
Thinned off another 140 Honey Crisp apples. Bugs definitely preferred HC to GR and Apears. You can see more bug damaged HC and cracks from recent rain, too.
