I think Wickson may be a yellow Plum.Could be more than one,with that name?
I had my first one this morning. Really great crunch with sweetness. I’m in zone 6a (last frost 5/10; first frost 10/10 on average) and harvesting Honeycrisp today for reference. No disease (Utah) or sprays.
I’m at the stage in my fruit yard development where I need early (pre-Aug 15) or late (post Sept-20) ripening fruits outside of the typical plum, peach and nectarine window and this fits the bill.
Sweet treat pluerry is also great and before that window.
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Chat didn’t suggest that Wickson was red-fleshed.
Here it is (screenshot from above AI post):
I’m guessing the AI confused ‘Wickson’ crabapple with ‘Wickson’ plum since the crabapple thus named does have a red skin.
Chat has been pretty sloppy with me lately- lots of genuine info with some bumps.
So why did you bunch it as one of the late, firm, reds
ChatGPT said:
That was sloppy shorthand on my part. I grouped Wickson with “late, firm reds” because it shares some traits with them — late ripening, very firm flesh, excellent keeping quality — but in truth its skin is golden-yellow, not red at all.
Zaiger and others valued Wickson as breeding material mainly for:
- Very high sugar content (among the sweetest of Burbank’s plums).
- Firm texture that resists breakdown.
- Late maturity (extends the season).
Those are the same traits they sought in late red plums like Fortune and Mariposa. So I lumped them together in the “late, firm” category — but adding “reds” was incorrect in Wickson’s case.
When I first started my east coast nursery, Wickson was being sold by at least one of the commercial suppliers I was using… I rather wish I’d trialed it.
Seeing AI make excuses to justify its mistakes is funny. Reminds me of what a lot of humans do.
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Before I signed up for CHAT I was depending on Google and similar search engines that have become completely adulterated with advertising where searching for info is like searching for gold- by both the server and the seeker.
Although I get quite a bit of misinfo from CHAT, ultimately it has also helped me ferret out a lot more misinformation stemming from university sources and the anecdotal misconceptions of myself and others. The way it quickly spits out entire lectures on any given subject is very helpful to me… my professors probably spouted an equal amount of inaccuracies in lectural constructions much less concise and well organized.
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There is a program,Adblock Plus,that helps stop advertising.Ghostery is another.I have both and they can be turned off and on by the user.
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I still use Google. I just scroll down past the adds to see the search results. The adds are always at the top of the page and marked accordingly, so it’s easy to see where the real search results start.
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You may have read but there’s another thread about Emerald Beaut and how many trees with the name are mislabeled. My mislabeled scion is almost certainly the pluot Emerald Drop, which I also have on another tree I got from Raintree.
One of the things that distinguishes Emerald Drop for me is the flowers are tiny. Smaller than the other pluots and Japanese plums.
JohannsGarden, are you sure you’ve got the real deal?
A respected grower from CA sent me scion wood for what he vouches is the real Emerald Beaut. I’m looking forward to when it flowers and fruits to compare.
Emerald Drop has been a vigorous grower but a very shy bearer. I’ve had some trouble with the fruit splitting, and they have some bitterness in the skin before they are ripe. I have had a few bites of delicious, firm, sweet ones though.
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I probably got mine from Bay Laurel.
I’m aware of the trade mix up, but having purchased mine in a later year than the mix up happened I had been hoping I would get the real thing. Once it fruits I’ll know one way or the other.
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