thecityman,
I think it would be ethical for me to pay the shipping, just let me know the cost when the time comes. If you want to trade, let me know then the shipping will be a wash.
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To me they look more like Flavor Supreme than dapple. However, FS is one of the earliest ripening pluots so it wouldāve already been harvested most likely. I think it ripens close to or shortly after the real Methley. Actually, since youāre in Kentucky maybe you are in the window. Adams has Methley ripening the second half of July
Your quote about them staying firm and crunchy lends a bit of credence to it being a pluot.
I highly doubt itās a watermelon plum or anything of the such. I searched for that plum and could not find a single US supplier. I highly doubt Wal Mart of all places would end up with a tree that not even the big nurseries are selling.
Whatever it is sounds like you have yourself a winner. Enjoy them!
Quote about firm and crunchy makes it certain itās not Methley!
With my experience limited to my local Walmarts I agree. Iāve never seen them carry anything but high volume common varieties.
That is a perfectly reasonable assumption and one I would have also thought were true, but as an admitted walmart tree shopper for years, I can say with great confidence that its not true! Surprisingly, at least where I live, Wal-mart constantly has strange trees Iāve never seen anywhere else, so this fits. Let me give 3 examples I have bought from our walmart::
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BRADLEY PLUM - Iāve even asked on this forum if anyone could tell me more about what this might be, but the label definately said āBradleyā. Some have suggested it might be a variety known as āBradley, King of Damsonsā but no one is sure. It hasnāt fruited yet but should next year (I have both Japanese and Euro plums near it so it should pollinate either way)
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Sweet Rush Plum - The photo shows it as a yellow plum. I asked about it here as well and of course people guessed it is just a Shiro or close relative/sport but of course no one knows. I think the tag even showed it as trademarked/ patented. It will be 4 years old next year and is a decent size so I should get first fruit. Here it is: http://www.mygardenlife.com/plant-library/6061/prunus/domestica/sweet-rush
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Red Honey Plum - I like the name of this one, but never found a single mention of it anywhere on the internet. I think I bought it the same year is the subject of this thread. Sadly, this one was killed by my neighborās spray drift so weāll never know what it would have produced.
SO, as you can see, the walmart here gets all kinds of strange things. Theyāve also had apples and pears I havenāt heard of (though that doesnāt mean you wouldnāt have- I donāt pay much attention to apples and pears Iām afraid).
Many of their strange fruits come from the āPark Hillsā nursery but to my frustration there is no web page for them and all I can find is a listing that shows they exist (yellow pages, google business, etc) but little else. I suppose the easy answer as that they are just making up names and applying them to known varieties, but thatās hard to believe, especially in view of what I see hanging on my tree right now.
I honestly didnāt realize until I write this post that all the strange/unknown fruits from my walmart have been plums. That makes this fruit even more likely to be something strange, it would seem. So, I have no idea where they are getting these unusual fruits, but it sure looks like this one is an oddball and perhaps quite exciting. BTWā¦Iāve shared it with more co-workers this morning and it just goes to confirm that just because I donāt love firm, almost crunchy, plums doesnāt mean others donāt. Everyone has gone wild for these things.
Make sure to let some of them hang a long time. In my experience crunchy nearly always means I am picking them too early. Plums that color up early are really tempting to think they are completely ripe when they are not. There are a few plums that are crunchy when completely ripe but not many.
Iām soooooo glad you said that, Scott. Reallyā¦soooo glad. Iāve always suspected that what you just said was true in general, and have been especially curious about it in this tree. And as proof that you are correct, I offer the following: You know how when fruits on a tree get some kind of bad spot (such as a bug or bird bite that gets infected) the rest of the fruit- especially close to the bad spot- will start to ripen really quickly right before it turns to rot. On this tree, when that has happened and Iāve picked the fruit and ate around the bad spot, it is a whole new world of deliciousness. OMG!!! Best fruit EVER. Those bites DO have the level of sweetness that I have previously ascribed to the more apricot-like plumcots. BUT HOLD ONā¦THERE IS A PROBLEM.
In 99% of the cases, what is happening is that these fruits are hanging on the tree (almost 4 months now!) for a very long time, then they basically go from the firm, almost crunchy stage to the rotten stage without passing through the āVery ripeā stage where they are much softer and much sweeter. In many cases, it starts at some bad point on the fruit (like a bug bite) and just starts to rot and then it spreads from there. In other cases, it will be a perfect looking fruit with no blemishes, and then very quickly it is almost covered in some kind of mold-looking rot and is completely rotten.
The above is my usual long-winded, meandering way of saying I think you are right, the firmer fruits Iām describing from this tree are not completely ripe. But they just wonāt get that level of ripeness on the tree- they rot first. Iāve wondered if I could spray some kind of anti-fungus/antibiotic/etc spray to get them to hang longer without rotting. Any thoughts any of this?
My thought: because of pest or disease pressure Iāve often picked plums before peak ripeness and let them ripen on the counter - which they do, softening and sweetening
They may not be ideally ripe, plum-contest-winning ripe, but theyāre ripe to eat and taste good, better than rotting on the tree
Iāve got a basket of Hollywoods that Iām enjoying right now
Great minds think alike, Lois. I picked 6 this morning and put them on my table to see how they ripen be themselves! Fingers crossed.
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Iāve done some more research on my plum and Iām pretty excited about my find. I ended up just calling the nursery that supplies walmart and explained my situation. I got a super nice lady who didnāt think she could help but did. She explained that they source trees from other nurseries as well as grow their own - all to supply Walmart. SO she said there was not much telling where my tree came from even if it had their tag. HOWEVER, when I told her it tasted a lot more like a plumcot than a plum, she sort of changed her tune. She said that they do not even sell plumcots to walmart, HOWEVER, one of the companies that they (her company) gets trees from ALSO grows plumcot trees for commercial plumcot growers. SHe said she had heard reports before that this company had acidently sold plumcots as plums and they ended up mislabled at plums. Here is the fun part: She said if that is what happened-and she bet it was- that I was very lucky because most of the plumcots they sell are protected/ patented and only available to commercial growers. So she said if I did get one of those I was lucky and they were usually good. SHe either couldnāt or wouldnāt tell me who their supplier is that grows these plumcot trees for commercial fruit producers, BUT she told me the name of one of the fruit producers who gets their trees from the company and told me they have a website for grocery store buyers that show all of their plumcots so I might could identify mine on it. AND I THINK I HAVE!!! Furthermore, that site leads me to believe all this is true and that lightening has even struck twice (ie this mistake was made before and I bought one) because they have one of the fruits I talked about in a post above as evidence that my walmart has odd balls occasionally. That one was called Honey Red (or Red Honey). The only place I have ever seen this anywhere else is on the commercial fruit growing site that buys their trees from the same company that might have accidentally sold a commercial-only plot to walmart that I also got. Sadly, my honey red was killed by neighbor.
I am sure I have completely and total confused everyone by now and Iāve done an awful job explaining this. I also acknowledge there is a lot of guessing going on here and itās more than a little possible that Iām wrong. But the condensed version of all this is that it looks like there is a good chance I got a pluot that was not supposed to be released to the public. If so thatās really neat. And darned if one of the photos doesnāt look absolutely identical in every way- inside and out- to my mystery plum.
The name of the one that matches mine is called DRAGON TEAR (gotta love that name!) I guess that since I didnāt pay a royalty for it, some of you may say I should go outside and destroy it. But I bought it in good faith, paid for it, Cared for it and waited 4 years, and am not 100% certain it is a patented tree, and Iām not selling the fruit, so Iāll let you guess whether or not Iām going to cut it down.
Even if mine isnāt a Dragon Tear, some of you may enjoy seeing all the varieties that- apparently- only commercial growers get to buy. Here is a list of photos and names from the site that wholesales fruit to retail stores: Remeber, they are an orchard, not a fruit tree seller.
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Good sleuthing Kevin! I am getting more convinced its a plumcot. Its up to the grower/seller to deal with the royalty, I wouldnāt worry about that.
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The Costco by me regularly carries plums, plouts, and aprium from Kingsbury. As mentioned Kingsbury has a long list of commercial only fruit. Iāve had a pluot from them I didnāt like but most of it is good. Iām enjoying some Ruby Velvet apriums from them today.
Thatās really cool Kevin. And if someone tells you to destroy the tree because of royalty issues tell them to stick it where the sun dont shine. You did zero wrong. And even though you think youāve figured out what you have there is no way to be 100% sure. So just enjoy your tree!
And yes, Dragon Tear is a really cool name. Iād probably refer to it āKevincotā just to keep the patent police away.
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I was looking on the Kingsburg Orchard site. The picture they have of Honey Punch is nothing like what Iām growing. Their HP has a very pronounced tip. Mine is round. Strange since I got mine straight from DWN.
Also noted their pictures are of half green fruit. I guess thatās commercial ripe.
Donāt know about the honey punch, but I bet anything you are right about why the other fruit looks unripe!!! If they put up photos of tree ripe fruit, then when they send grocery stores the half-green junk they pick so it can ship better, the stores might think they got the wrong thing! ha
Its not completely clear if its that one from the list, or if it is another one not on that list, or its a seedling. Since its just guesswork Iād go with Kevincot 
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Kevin,
If you like the fruit, consider yourself fortunate, and sit back and
enjoy the fruit of your labor. No pun intended. You certainly did nothing
wrong, and you shouldnāt worry about anyone coming after you for one
tree. Mistakes like this happen all of the time, and itās just a cost of doing
business on a large scale.
As a key to ripeness, just about all plums will develop a filmy coating, when
theyāre ripe. Congratulations, you will now probably be deluged with requests
for scion wood.