I need a better understanding of the ripening time relative to other Euro plums. Which other gage varieties or Euro plums in general are ripening for you now or ripened in the last few weeks? Which are not ripe yet?
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Dates may be a few days off from year to year but the order has been the same:
9/1 Mirabelles started ripening and continue on.
9/1 Cambridge gage ripened.
9/5 This mysterious plum
9/9 Jefferson is ripening now
9/15 Bavay
9/20 Coeâs Golen Drop
I have one green gage plum but it has not yet ripened.
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By the way, the tag said Pearl but I looked at Pearl, the shape is not Pearl.
If they are a little smaller than a gage, but bigger than a regular mirabelle, it may be Reine de Mirabelle. Iâve had a few damaged ones drop, but the rest are a few days away from being ripe for me. They look similar to your picture. For reference, my other mirabelles arenât quite ripe yet either.
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Could be Reine Claude Dâoree
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I think Oullins ripens to look like that, but I didnât look at any this year and my physical memory is poor. I donât like the way Oullins tastes when its overipe. It doesnât get up high enough brix to pull it off for me and tastes bland. However, this is based on limited experience. My own Oullins is too shaded to be representative and Iâve only experienced this a single season at a site with all-day sun.
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At my place, Bavay ripens before Jefferson, so establishing ripening time sequence is not easy. Anyway, the plums on the photo look similar to Golden Transparent Gage. For me, GT ripens between Bavay and Jefferson, so ripening time is in the right ball park.
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Stan, have I asked you which of those gage and gage type plums you like best?
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I donât think you have. I like gages in general, they are mostly very good to excellent. Itâs difficult to single out one or two. Bavay is very good, productive, and does not require much thinning to acquire high sugar and flavor. Jefferson is also prolific, a larger fruit but the flavor is more delicate. Purple gage is very sweet.
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Thank you all for your responses.
@mrsg47, I donât have this plum even though the shape looks similar. It says Dâoree is greenish gold. My plums are apricot orange.
@ztom, thatâs interesting. I think I grafted this plum a while back. Still, I could not find pics on internet that show very orange-colored plum.
@Stan I have not grafted Golden Transparent variety but it is on my want list.
@alan, I checked Ouillins on Internet. The color is not like this one.
This plum has shown its orange color since they were very firm.
Here are the line up from left to right:
Mirabelle Parfume de Septembre, unknown Euro plum and âCastletonâ (it ripens too late to be Castleton but thatâs what Raintree sent me several years ago).
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Here is an excerpt from Plums of NY,about the Pearl.bb
PEARL
Prunus domestica
- Burbank Cat. 5. 1898. 2. Am, Gard. 21:36. 1900. 3. Waugh Plum Cult. 118. 1901.
One can grow seedlings of some plums with considerable certainty of getting respectable offspring- plums worth having in an orchard but the chances of growing a variety of superior qualities are small indeed.
It is a piece of good luck, a matter almost wholly of luck, when, as in this case, but one parent is known, to secure as fine a fruit as the Pearl plum. The variety now under notice is one to be pleased with if it came as a chance out of thousands; its rich, golden color, large size, fine form, melting flesh and sweet, luscious flavor, place it among the best dessert plums. In the mind of the writer and of those who have assisted in describing the varieties for The Plums of New York, it is unsurpassed in quality by any other plum. The tree-characters, however, do not correspond in desirability with those of the fruits. The trees, while of medium size and seemingly as vigorous and healthy as any, are unproductive. In none of the several years they have been fruiting at this Station have they borne a large crop. If elsewhere this defect does not show, the variety becomes at once one of great value. The fruits of Pearl are said to cure into delicious prunes to be readily believed by one who has eaten the fresh fruits. This variety ought to be very generally tried by commercial plum-growers and is recommended to all who grow fruit for pleasure.
Pearl is a recent addition to the list of plums and though its history is well known its parentage is in doubt. In 1898, Luther Burbank introduced the variety as a new prune grown from the seed of the well-known Agen. The male parent is not known but from the fruit and tree, one at once surmises that it was some variety of the Reine Claude group, its characters being so like those of the plum named that no one could suspect that it came from the seed of a plum so far removed from the Reine Claude as the Agen.
Tree of medium size, vigorous, vasiform, dense-topped, hardy, unproductive; branches ash-gray, with numerous, small, raised lenticels; branchlets twiggy, thick, long, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-red, very pubescent early in the season becoming less so at maturity, with numerous, small, raised lenticels; leaf-buds large, above medium in length, conical, appressed; leaf-scars prominent.
Leaves broadly oval, one and seven-eighths inches wide, three and one-half inches long, thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, rugose, covered with fine hairs, with a grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed, base abrupt, margin serrate or crenate, with small, black glands; petiole seven-eighths inch long, thick, pubescent, tinged red, glandless or with from one to three small, globose, brownish glands on the stalk.
Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the leaves, showy on account of their size, averaging one and five-eighths inches across, white, with a tinge of yellow at the apex of the petals; borne on lateral spurs and buds, usually singly; pedicels one-half inch long, thick, strongly pubescent, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate and with marginal hairs, strongly reflexed; petals obovate or oblong, entire, tapering to short, broad claws; anthers yellow; filaments nearly one-half inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; one and three-quarters inches by one and one-half inches in size, roundish-oval, compressed, halves unequal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt; suture a line; apex depressed; color golden-yellow, obscurely striped and splashed with dull green, mottled, overspread with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, whitish, inconspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem thick, three-quarters inch long, thickly pubescent, adhering well to the fruit; skin tough, separating readily; flesh deep yellow, juicy, a little coarse and fibrous, firm but tender, very sweet, with a pleasant, mild flavor, aromatic; very good to best; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, long-oval, slightly necked at the base, bluntly acute at the apex, with rough surfaces; ventral suture broad, blunt; dorsal suture with a wide, shallow groove.
[Notes from the North Carolina Piedmont: Delicious, sweet and rich plums when ripened under warm and dry conditions, rots badly if ripening occurs in a wet period. Only potential pollinizers are Imperial Epineuse and Geneva Mirabelle. Ripens around xxx in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. Grafted onto Krymsk x rootstock, the tree will still quickly reach 20 feet tall unless pruned to a more manageable size.
Edit:There was no photo available for Pearl Plum,on the page where this text came from.See Stanâs photo below,for an accurate representation.bb
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It is not GTG, it is too early and too yellow. My guess would also be Pearl.
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@scottfsmith,
The tag on this graft said Pearl. I looked up Pearl on Internet. Pics on the net showed an oblong shape plum. This plum shape like a typical gage plum, rather round.
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Hmm, I had Pearl and it looks just like Bradyâs picture. Maybe there is another newer Pearl out there.
It took forever to fruit and was super stingy and earlier than I liked for my climate so I took it out around five years ago.
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This pic was from Greenmantle. Another nursery site uses this same pic.
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That is not the classic Pearl. Not sure what that is. âŚYellow Egg?
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When did your Pearl ripen, Scott? Mine should have ripen about a week ago. I let them go too long. They are overripe now, very soft but still have that Euro plum taste to it.
@Bradybb. Thanks for the detailed info about Pearl. Whoever wrote the description had eyes like an eagle. So detailed.
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Here is a photo of my Pearl,taken 8/2017.It was new to me then and picked too early.The scions came from Bob Purvis.bb
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Look like mine 3 weeks ago. It is cling stone, too.
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Brady, the picture you have posted is of the variety named âPetersâ, not âPearlâ. At least this is what I see in my copy of âThe Plums of New Yorkâ.
This is the picture of Pearl in my copy of âThe Plums of New Yorkâ:
Here is the description by Luther Burbank himself:
THE PEARL PRUNE
Obviously, then, this was not the fruit I was seeking. But my experiments continued and after a few more generations of crossing and selection, I found among the seedlings one that produced a fruit in many respects more promising. This fruit was introduced in 1898 under the name of the Pearl prune. The Pearl prune originated as a seedling from the French prune. It is usually a little larger than its parent, but somewhat more flattened in form. The skin and flesh are pale amber and so translucent when ripe that the stone can be seen through them. It is really a delightful prune, of exceeding high flavor, delicious aroma, and melting flesh, surpassing even the true Green Gage plum. No prune excels it for attractive fragrance. When cured it produces one of the most delicious of prunes; but it requires care in handling, since it does not cure well in the open air. Its chief fault is that it is not very productive, although healthy and vigorous. It was sold to a New Zealand firm for introduction in the Southern Hemisphere in 1898. I myself introduced it in the Northern Hemisphere. The New Zealand nursery company recommends it for that country in a recent catalog as follows: âPearl:-Raised by Luther Burbank. A seedling of the well-known French prune, which it surpasses in size of fruit. It is very handsome, flattened ovoid in form, white, semi-transparent, with a heavy bloom. In honeyed sweetness, combined with a peculiarly attractive fragrance and flavor it excels all other prunes or plums. It requires care in handling, and will not cure well in the open air. It is especially recommended for market and home use when fresh.â The following quotation from âThe Plums of New York,â written in 1910, shows how this variety was regarded in New York at that time: "The variety now under notice is one to be pleased with if it came as a chance out of thousands; its rich, golden color, large size, fine form, melting flesh, and sweet, luscious flavor place it among the best dessert plums. In the mind of the writer and of those who have assisted in describing the varieties for âThe Plums of New York,â it is unsurpassed in quality by any other plum. The tree-characters, however, do not correspond in desirability with those of the fruits. The trees, while of medium size, and seemingly as vigorous and healthy as any, are unproductive here. In none of the several years they have been fruiting at this Station have they borne a large crop. If elsewhere this defect does not show, the variety becomes at once one of great value. âThe fruits of Pearl are said to cure into delicious prunes-to be readily believed by one who has eaten the fresh fruits. This variety ought to be very generally tried by commercial plum growers and is recommended to all who grow fruit for pleasure.â
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