Just an update. The bloom that made this plum opened May 7. I am not sure how much longer it will need. I don’t expect the plum to taste great with such young roots, but I think the wet weather we are having will not be good for it. The later into September we get, the more likely the weather will turn cold and wet. When I buy more plum trees, I will stick with ones that harvest before Autumn. The last week of Summer even seems questionable to me.
edited due to a mislabeled tree
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My Purple Gage plum looks like it will have its first real harvest this year. Last year’s single plum never sweetened. I am trying to run it lean on water, and I thinned at least 3/4 of the fruits.
edited due to a mislabeled tree
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Please post a ripened fruit when you pick one. I am wondering if there is not some mix-up in the Purple Gage in the US, the original one is very round as can be seen in the old drawings (Reine Claude Violette). @ztom’s fruit looks like the old pictures. All the other Gage types are round as well, I never saw an oblong Gage. My vague memory on my tree I pulled several years ago is the plums were oblong; I think it was from Botner. Sometimes round vs oblong is related to the growing conditions so hard to be certain.
PS old picture:
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Some update photos. They are still very hard to the touch. They are bulging in different locations, but the shape seems to balance as they ripen. I have been watering lightly-just enough to prevent wilt.
edited due to a mislabeled tree
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Just an update. They probably need another week or so.
edited due to a mislabeled tree
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These are suppose to be Purple Gage.They were on ground a few days ago,probably knocked off by a bird.
I let them sit on the countertop and tried one this morning and it wasn’t real tasty.They may need an extra couple weeks,on the tree,to ripen.
From memory,the scions may have been acquired locally.bb
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The plums on your photo are not gages, these are blue plums (prunes).
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It wouldn’t be the first time a nursery shipped the wrong tree. I will wait until they are finished to see what they look like.
Just an update. I am 200ish GDD behind last year, and it has put out 48.5" of growth. The plums are becoming rounder but are still firm. I tried one that was slightly split from the recent rain, and it was very tasty, but a bit green with slightly bitter skin. I didn’t water it this year until it started to wilt and drop plums. It also got a lot of unplanned dog nitrogen.
edited due to a mislabeled tree
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I have a few this year but mine are still hard. I’ve grafted many different varieties to that tree and only a few branches are original. We might be getting a very early frost this year but I plan on letting them hang really long. FWIW that tree has taken grafts from other euro plums really well.
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Mine is making impressively thick wood. It looks like it would make an awesome scaffold for anyone wanting a multi-graft.
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I cut one open that was slightly split at the suture. 21.2 Brix, good acid/sugar balance, juicy, but green taste & slightly bitter/sour skin. Either it is not quite ripe, or perhaps it is from too much nitrogen?
edited due to a mislabeled tree
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I purchased a ‘purple gage’ from Raintree in ‘11 and planted it in my sister’s yard in Cedar Rapids Iowa. It grew fairly well despite being planted near the road (salt spray) and in a clay soil. After a few years it started producing small purple plums that ‘ripened’ in Sept. At least that’s when my sister harvested them. They were very firm and the flavor was not outstanding. What was special about them is they seemed to never get brown rot. It was also pretty hardy as it survived -29f (ambient) one winter with no damage. Unfortunately I didn’t know about it being in a right of way and the city cut it down about a year ago. I’m considering buying another since the late ripening seems to keep the brown rot away. (Four other plum cultivars I have grown here all have significant BR issues)
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I also ordered a purple gage from Raintree–lost the label but pending finding my planting plan, this looks like what I have been getting, ripening extremely late, ended up picking this year before completely ripe in October. The tree is very productive, have to thin a lot. I cooked them with sweeter Mirabelles and some sugar into a wonderful compote, very flavorful. I’m wondering about the ripening time, need to do more research on what other sources say.
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I checked with Raintree, and mine was mislabeled. They refunded my tree. I was going to use the credit to buy more trees, but they just cancelled the Flavor Grenade pluot I ordered back in October. I cancelled my order, and I am using the credit to buy 7 Krymsk 1 rootstocks. It is strike 3 for a nursery that takes my money upfront. I now have to go through the trouble of top-working the tree and waiting another year or two for fruit. I plan to order from Burnt Ridge and Cummins from now on. Maybe others if they are reputable.
I will remove the photos to avoid confusion.
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@Bradybb
I’m late to the game in this post. I did a search after seeing your scion list. I’ve never had Purple Gage, but the flesh in the circled fruit looks like the consistency of ripe gage flesh to me:
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That may be,but from what I can remember,they didn’t wow me.This was the first time fruiting and hopefully they will be better flavored in the future.
I got my Purple Gage plum from Raintree in the spring of 2018. It had a small crop of first fruit a year ago (2021) and quite a few this year. I’m very surprised by the small size of the fruit, and its somewhat oblong shape (sorry, don’t have a photo). I wonder if it’s because the tree is still young.
That said, the taste is excellent, but reminds me more of the Italian/German/Hungarian prune plum family than of gages. The fruit ripened in late August.
Someone asked about chill hours - we have very low chill hours here in San Jose, CA, so I’d recommend it for warm climates. It also seems to hold up well to extreme heat.
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Welcome to the forum! Glad to read about your
purple gauge plum. @ztom had mentioned the smaller size before on this old thread Gauging Green Gage .Have no real world experience with the purple gauge but i do grow the green gauge. Most of us really enjoyed the old green gauge when they were more common at the store many years ago in my childhood. There are fewer gauge plums grown today than there once was. They are very hard for me to grow here. The quality is very high on the gauges. There are gauges grown that are not what we consider gauges at all but the previous post will describe their observations in more detail. There are different strains of gauge plums by the same name.
Mine appear to be prolific. The heaviest setting, most reliable plum I have. The taste was better this year. For me, the skin is too bitter, but the flesh is actually very sweet. They ripen a little earlier than I thought but hang well on the tree for weeks into October. I still don’t think they are a real Purple Gage.
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