Oops yes I thought Tippy was in zone 5 but I just looked and she is in zone 6. I was thinking you must be at the southern end of NH if you were in her zone.
My plan for the future is to follow @alan advice and plant resistant varieties like spring satin, bluebyrd or kenmore and then graft other varieties to it to help with black knot.
@scottfsmith and @TimNH
I am in zone 6a. No, Coe’s Golden Drop does not ripen here consistently. This year, most ripened in time because we had a very dry, and hot summer. In a regular year, Coe’s ripening is not reliable.
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Double miss there on my part, wrong zone and wrong memory about ripening! Thanks for correcting me.
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I love Coe’s but have been very frustrated with it. I grafted most of them over to something else. Not only they often do not ripen fully, they produce two kinds of fruit, the golden yellow ones and the greenish ones. Both were ripe and tasted similar.
@scottfsmith You still remember that I grow Coe’s. That’s a plus.
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I’ve been very happy with Brooks. Good sized fruits, excllent for cooking and fresh eating, good for drying.
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Ersinger is almost unknown, while ripening quite early and appears to be at least partially self-fertile. Disease pressure seems fairly low for Europlums here, although I lost North Star sour cherry to canker just above the graft union. Ersinger is rather small, but has good flavor and floral undertone which endures drying. It’s freestone.
Message me if you’d like a stick or two next February.
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Trees of Antiquity snippet…
also aka on Stark Bros. website.
Not many mentions of Fellenberg on this site… or Italian plums for that matter… MrsG is one of the few to report.
Sold at alot of nurseries but not very popular to talk about… or grow?
Nick does a good taste test… seems like a good one in the PNW or wherever Euros fare well.
There is a Late Italian (Canada only?)
and Early Italian (aka. Richards?)
DWN says its sweeter (but earlier).
aka. Early Fellenberg?
This ‘Plum Picks for NY’ gives much better review of Early Italian than Italian.
FWIW- Fellenberg name meaning/history.
‘Italian’ found in Lombardy (Italy) in 1800, imported by Mr. P.E. von Fellenberg to Germany
In those days if you liked something you just put your own name on it i think.
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Thanks for the snippet of useful information. Seems likely that plum came to this continent via two routes, hence the names.
Italian Prune/Fellenburg is almost the only Europlum to be found in the city limits of Spokane that I know of, so I opted for other varieties. Am glad I did. Italian Prune works fine in this region, but I woudl not have found the floral undertone in Ersinger nor the vanilla undertone in Kirke’s if I hadn’t plumped the cash to grow 'wm myself.
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I agree about Ersinger. Early Laxton and Opal are earlier, but their taste is sub-par. Ersinger, however, is very good. Ersinger ripens around Redhaven time for me. Later than Early Laxton and Opal, but still early for a Euro plum.
and very good.
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‘Sugar Plum’ is probably the hardest one to talk about and learn about due to its naming. Its another seedling plum from Burbank along with French Improved but as far as i can tell its round in shape… The one sold at a few niche nurseries as ‘Sugar Plum’ may be ‘Moyer’ or ‘Moyer’ may be ‘Sugar Plum’…
Interesting take on plums from the PNW… with another praise for Brooks Plum.
Empress ripens very late for me- ripe being when the flesh has turned entirely amber and it has reached full sweetness. Not sure it can get there in NH.
Valor is my favorite E. plum because it gets a bit sweeter for me than Empress and Empress tends to hold its texture when cooked, making it good for tarts or other purposes where you want cooked plums firm, but I use suaced plums more, especially with thawed peaches, apricots or nectarine pieces from my freezer (originally from my trees). I eat these every morning with steel cut oats and yogurt.
In my experience, E plums grown commercially in the east tend to be the most reliable croppers. Empress, Stanley, Valor and Castleton all fill that bill. At least Castleton will ripen fully where you are. Probably anything that ripens by Stanley’s window will. I don’t know if you can do better than Mt. Royal and Castleton. I’ve come to realize, partially thanks to Mamuang (long story) that Mt Royal is an exceptionally sweet plum when fully tree ripe and I’ve long known it to be one of the more reliable croppers down here in S. NY state.
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Oh no, I now realize that I’m possibly conflating two types of Mt. Royal. There is one that was “accidentally” sold by Adams County Nursery as Valor that are almost perfect round balls. That one hasn’t been all that reliable for me. Then there are the trees I purchased with that name years ago from Hilltop nursers that were more oblong and very heavy croppers most every year.
If one of the two was mislabeled by the nursery, I now think it was most likely the Hilltop trees… the Adams ones are uniquely round for an E. plum.
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The Mt. Royal I have is from Raintree on St Julian A. It hasn’t fruited yet but it’s described as being a rounded fruit and heavy cropping. I guess we’ll see. I will likely graft out some valor at some point to try it. You have convinced me on Castleton.
My current E. Plums trees are/will be
Castleton
Kenmore
Mt Royal
Multi graft Mirabelle
With grafts of:
Green Gage
Seneca
Victoria
*Empress
*Imperial Epineuse
*Ersinger
- Not grafted yet
I think that’s a good spread for now!
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My Mt.Royal has round fruit. It tastes very good. Delicious and productive, a good combo. Everyone who tries it, loves it.
On your list, I will be worried about mirabelles due to black knot. Black knot is the worst on mirabellles. Empress ripens for me in time in late Sept. Another excellent E plum is Vision. Large (like Empress), tasty, productive plum. Ripen around mid Sept (I think). Not many people talk about Vision. @Ahmad and I really like it.
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From the few that have shared pics/videos i think you are correct.
Stephan grows Mt Royal and makes prunes
He should know that your Mt. Royal was not purchased with that name, I think. Has yours born good crops every year? I have “fake Valor” now known as Mt Royal at several sites. I does not bare as consistently as my most reliable varieties here. I get same site comparisons.
Vision is excellent, to me it has an edge over Empress. Dried Vision is to die for…I dry most of my crop.
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Thank you all for the great recommendations. I wish I had the space to try them all!