Got bad allergies from pollen for over week now. Can’t smell a thing!!!
They are not as sweet as they used to. Too much water.
I will need to make jam from the split ones. Lot of them.
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Thanks Steve, Blueberry, and Annie.
Two weeks after the original photo, I picked one test-berry and it was 16 brix, but still astringent.
They could probably be used at this point, but I will give it a bit more time.
That’s the perfect time to have a pellet gun. You’ve got a nice shot downwards from your deck, so you wouldn’t be likely to hit anything else. While my mother in law was visiting the other day, I got a rabbit. I thought about offering it to her, but didn’t think she had skinned one before and didn’t want her to make a mess with it,It is very useful how the rabbits freeze, and wait while I get the air rifle (and pump it a dozen times). Not so good how they manage to get around my attempts at fencing pole beans- they got them all…
If you know of the hole, you can buy a smoke bomb from amazon. Just block off the other exits and throw the lit smoker in and block it off. I did that a few years ago with groundhogs and haven’t seen any since. Though I’m sure they will be back at some point. And there are plenty of raccoons and rabbits in their absence.
I’ve caught a few, but it was hit or miss and probably more effort than it was worth. Wrapping the cage in a tarp to disguise it was one thing which helped.
Yes- makes sense that that approach would be similar or better than the tarp.
I picked one 1-1.5 weeks ago and it was only 16 brix and not ready. Today’s was 19 brix, but I think it was the last or 2nd to last one on the tree. Many of my Euro plums had very poor sets this year.
From earlier today:
The Vision plum was huge and has a lot of promise. Probably needs another week or two. But, I only saw one more plum on the fairly large tree (maybe 8" diameter trunk…).
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Sometimes, I wish I could shoot those rodents. The groundhog has not showed up since it saw a trap (without camouflage). Need to find its new travel route before I set up a camouflage trap.
Re. Vision, it is a good and large plum. I have several this year. They have not turn fully blue yet. In my experience Vision ripens a few weeks after Fake Valor.
This is my banner year for Euro plums. I have thinned them as much as I have had time to but would not be surprised if they go biennial next year.
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if you mix aronia with dairy it removes almost all astringency as well as cutting with another berry. had a hard time mowing around my 2 bushes. the fruit load is crazy, just like all my other berries were this summer. most of the branches are bent nearly to the ground. had berries all over me and the tractor.
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The exception to this being Muir Beauty. I had a graft of MB which was massively overloaded (I should have thinned more) and there was a lot of rot and wasp/yellow jackets.
On the other side of the yard, there was another Euro plum which also had a fairly heavy set (unlike all the others). I just looked it up and found out that it is also Muir Beauty. Seems unlikely that by pure chance, out of the dozens of Euro plums I am growing, 2 grafts of MB are the only heavy setters. What’s also strange is that I grafted both in 2018 and don’t recall either being that out of the ordinary in the past, though I think one of them was heavier than average last year. Maybe it is only in lean years that it shines.
Wow- those are far behind the 20 brix one I had yesterday. Maybe it doesn’t take as long for the tree to ripen a crop consisting of 2 plums 
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Yesterday, I was in the kitchen looking at my trees in the backyard. Suddenly, my 4 ft tall apple tree (M 27 rootstock) shook badly. Then, we saw the culprit. Our resident groundhog was pulling an apple off the tree. The tree is so short, it did not need to climb, just stood on two hind legs and grabbed the apple.
This was in the middle of the day. I was not quick enough to grab a camera but my daughter got the pic. You can enlarge the pic and see the thief got caught red handed.
@MikeC - this was similar to the pic of a squirrel running away with your peach in its mouth.
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In a way,that’s almost better than him getting in the tree and breaking things.
A family of Raccoons went into a multi-grafted Plum and Pluot,cracking a fairly thick Flavor King branch,which may be fixable and possible other grafts.
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Those rascals are sneaky and so crafty at getting OUR fruit.
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Last year, my orchard was raided by raccoons and opossums during the night and groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits during the day.
This year, I have not seen destruction by the night raiders (yet).
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They scattered when a hose was turned on them.
I wonder if those motion detecting water sprayers will work?
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@Bradybb
An effective I have found is to watch its traveling route and the food it likes. Then, set a trap on its route with the fruit/food it goes after.
I set the tap on its path to my tree and used two apples from the tree Fat Chuck stole. It worked.
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They are not fruit but I want to have an opportunity thanks @anon89542713 for giving me the seedlings of these peppers (and several tomato seedlings, too)
They are more of them, very productive.
THANK YOU, Galina.
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I am glad they work for you well. Mine was producing OK in July, now they are just hanging there - a lot of large peppers, but do not get colored. I guess it is too cold for them and they are not in premium spot.
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Mine just turning color this week. Some varieties are more productive than the others. Unfortunately, I can’t read the tags any more.
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I will tell you when I visit
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I have Coe’s Golden Drop dropped unripe fruit (live up to its name) in a large quantity.
They are good size plums and I hate to throw them away.
Just wonder if anyone has good recipes or know what to do with unripe Euro plums.
@mrsg47 , @IL847 , could you please help?
suggestions are welcome.
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I wish I had such good harvest.
Make plum wine. Wash and clean them. Pack with sugar and vodka.
Another way is to make snack. Lot of work though. Cut in quarter. Add salt to let the juice run out. Squeeze out as much juice as possible. Dry under the sun till wrinkles. Mix with sugar. Pack them into tall glass jar. Tight the lid and let it ferment in sugar for months. Then take them out dry more under the sun. Mix any other seasoning you like. Pack back to the glass jar. I usually seal it with honey, till next year. Then dry them under sun more till you can pick it up without having honey running down your fingers. Sweet and delicious fruit preserves.
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Annie,
Unfortunately (or fortunately 
) No one in my family drinks alcohol. The second recipe sound good but is too complicated. Thank you for your help. Maybe, I can just pickle them.
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