No fires here.There is smoke sometimes,but nothing this year.
Only record breaking heat. 
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I’ve never grown any plum with brix that low besides, maybe, Shiro, and I’ve had years wetter than this one where almost every day was grey and mosquitos plagued me all day long. And yet your plums look absolutely beautiful. I’m amazed they didn’t get up the sugar at all there because plums that don’t crack and rot here always do on wet years. I can tell you that even this year when Shiro is actually quite good, EM is about 2 points higher on average, with more appealing texture (meatiness) and acid with that sugar. However, my main tree had a sparse crop, partially because of bacterial spot, but also because of its very early flowering habit. However, nursery trees with it that are on a part of the property with much better eastern exposure and heavier set had equally sweet fruit, equally superior to any other early plums.
Do you grow Shiro? Was it any better?
I got rid of Shiro last year after almost 10 years of growing it. Shiro also had low brix most of the time.
However, this year is the wettest ever. I did not thin any Early Magic and they set hundreds. Maybe, a combination of too many of them and the historical wet summer results in poor eating quality.
My Spring Snow ripened in the middle of this wet summer had brix as low as 8. They were so awful, I threw them away. There was one year when Gold Dust peaches ripened during rainy stretch, it was equally awful. I am not surprised. It is to be expected under this condition.
Yes, in our climate it’s very useful to have a wide sequence of ripening varieties for more than one reason. I have often misjudged varieties in the past whose quality was damaged by frequent rain and mostly cloudy skies in the 2 or 3 weeks that preceded ripening.
Your season could turn around if the rain would just lay off a bit. We haven’t dried out and continue to get rain a couple times a week, but after the tropical storm that dumped 3-4" I don’t think our averages have been more than normal. Most of the rain has come later in the day after trees have gotten decent or good sun. Clear days and relatively cool nights seem to particularly inspire high brix.
The best way to evaluate varieties, IMO, is to compare to others in its season grown nearby. After about 10 years you should have a pretty accurate appraisal of how it does at that site.
My 3 Rising Star ripened (one dropped) on 8/3/21. Like any fruit ripened so far this summer, they were full of water. These peaches were large but tasteless. The first one had brix at 10!! I don’t expect a miracle from the other two.
@Olpea so far, I had water-soaked Spring Snow and now Rising Star. You can see the split at the bottom. All three have that split.
I talked so much about rain. Today, the weatherman said up to this point, our county has a rain surplus of 4.66”. This does not include 1.8” more rain expected tonight into tomorrow midday.
There always be next year.
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Water-soaked Rising Star peaches were another disappointment. This one was somewhat edible if you want to eat a peach wiith brix at 9!!!
You can see a rotten area at the bottom where the split occurred.
The one before this was even worse, a totally bust.
Is this due to all of the rain?
I will say the mushy, bloated fruit were a result of so much rain we have gotten.
The lack of sun light (many cloudy days) has contributed to low sugar in the fruit, too, I believe.
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Wed night/Thurs morning, 8/4-8/5 alone, my area got 1.8” of rain. Several towns got 4+“ of rain for just one night.
This was in top of rain in excess that we have had. With all this, Cape Cod has suffered a drought as rain had missed it for weeks until this last one. So weird.
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Well, you just described weather that can ruin peaches!
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sorry to hear that. my brother in Bristol, CT says its been the same there. s. Maine also has had weather similar to you guys. we’re in our 2nd drought in a row though not as bad as last year. 2in. difference isnt much though. i see the work you guys put into your peaches just to get them to harvest, then the rain ruins them. can you still make preserves from them? id imagine if you cooked them down enough, you could concentrate the sugars and taste.
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Thank you, Steve. There were only a few of them and they were really awful, mushy and very bland.
I have several kinds of fruit that ripen that different times of the season. Hopefully, some will work out well.
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@mamuang - We must have had the same band of storms - tons and tons of rain after a rather dry spell. I have a rain gauge out on one of the scuppernong posts - and was shocked every time I emptied it. At one point there was over 7" of rain to dump.
Tomatoes lost their ‘umph’ for sure! My Indian Frees are still on the tree and they survived without cracking, but did have a ‘growth spurt’. Those IF peaches are soooo slow growing . . . and still rather odd looking. We caged that tree last night in preparation for ‘the night visitors’.
The difference is we did not have any dry spell since early June until now. This is the first real stretch of sunny days (more than 2 days in a row) starting yesterday.
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Spoke too soon. Today, the 2nd day of “sunny“ weather. The day ended with a strong wind gust and a thunder storm after 94F temp.
Forecast said this weather pattern (very hot during the day) could produce a thunder storm every evening!! There went my stretch of sunny days. It has caused cracking as many of my fruit are closer to ripen.
A Freckle Face nectarine got knocked off on 8/12/13. I let it rest for two days before trying it. These nectarines are in bags. Still, it got quite red. I am sure without bags, they will be solid red.
It was underripe and definitely need a week or two more to properly ripen. Brix was only 12 at this point and tartness was quite pronounced.
However, “something” had taken low hanging ones for the previous 3-4 days. Yesterday, net went up.
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Finally, got a fruit that was worth writing home about.
I have only 3 fruit of Kosui this year. The tree is in a shade location. Wish I could remove my neighbor’s row of pine.
A friend stopped by today. I had him tried it his review of it was the same as mine. It was juicy, crisp, sweet (but not too sweet), light and refreshing. He said, “It’s a 10”. Finally, I’ve tasted an Asian pear that could beat Korean Giant. KG is similar but its texture is denser.
I think I can eat several Kosui in one sitting. It’s so refreshing.
Thank you @scottfsmith
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Glad you liked it! It is my favorite. My crows agreed this year, it got cleared out first 
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Squirrels got these pears the past two years. This was the first year I beat out squirrels. Of the 3 pears, one got a chunk bitten off!!
Now I know why it is your favorite. It is mine now. Thank you again for the scionwood.
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