What zone you are in?
I am in 6a, I picked EH in mid Sept. This was old pic.
I let one hung until Oct and it looked like this. Softer, sweeter but not mushy.
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Here in down state NY we used to often have dry springs. I had an EH tree growing in at least 50% shade that bore small fruit (because of low light) every year in a full harvest. They were small but sweet, so the shade didn’t hurt the quality much, but then came a trend of wetter springs and the tree started getting black knot although not so bad I had to kill it like the nearby Methely. The EH died from cambium kill likely due to very hard freeze.
I planted another one on the Eastern side of my house against an Airstream trailer to give it some protection and extra reflected light and after a few years (more than other J. plums) it started bearing well with big fruit, and pretty consistently. However, after about 20 years is also died.
Lately I’ve depended on grafts on other trees and haven’t had much crop. This year there is some fruit, but not a lot, but then, Satsuma and Early Magic also bore fairly scant crops on very large trees- they aren’t very reliable here any more either even though for the first few years they bore they did very well.
EH is not significantly more susceptible to BK than most other varieties here- only Methely has the distinction of being exceptionally susceptible.
A Spring Satin got the Airstream spot after the EH died, It gave me a great crop this year for the first time. I do hope it is the beginning of a trend. Maybe it needs more years than others to become productive, like Elephant Heart.
I first started growing fruit as a boy in S. CA. Of 5 siblings I was the natural gardener so my father paid me to be the keeper of our 3 acre landscape that I made sure contained a lot of fruit trees and a productive veg garden. There Elephant Heart was my favorite fruit, but the squirrels and raccoons were usually a big problem. I didn’t know how to control them then.
I’m also in zone 6A, near Syracuse NY. It is certainly early from their September standard. They’re on track to overlap with my alderman. I have no explanation except our odd summer - hot and dry here.
A reminder though I’m asking “when should I pick” and not “when are they ripe”. The last picture was plucked from the tree. I’ll let them hang if they’re not prone to being mealy. With the ozark picking firm and ripening on the counter was better. The couple of quarts of drops so far have been delicious.
You are right that you ask when you should pick, not when the plums are ripe. My bad.
I have grown OP and many other J. plums and never found one that was improved by finishing the ripening process indoors. No wonder mamuang was a bit confused.
But then, I’ve always been satisfied with how they tasted when ripening on the tree. Yes, some loose their flavor when allowed to get completely soft, but there’s a sweet spot on the tree when plums reach peak flavor. I don’t believe they have starches that turn to sugar after picking, like apples.
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Coming back to this thread, this particular comment by @alan has mirrored my experience. The staggered ripening has been beneficial as it does not overload the fridge and stomach.
Ripening from the bottom up, I find that once the flesh yields, the bottoms dark red, tops light red they quickly lose hold and fall. I try to pick at this point. Is is difficult to find all candidates throughout the tree, and find the ones I missed on the ground in the morning.
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Beautiful photos. Wish I had EH plums this year. I have lots of Burgundy Queen, however, which I find to be the very best J. plum for culinary use. It ripens at the same time as EH but is not nearly as crazy sweet- as grown here.
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Is that the same as Burgundy Plum?
No, I had a senior brain fart. Ruby Queen. So many names and terms flowing through my brain- gets harder all the time to rope them in. The color is much closer to burgundy than a ruby though. The sauce it makes is exceptionally dark and beautiful.
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