It is definitely a Gage, might be the Green Gage, but it’s difficult to say with it being in such a condition. Gages usually take time to start producing.
I have to amend the above … with all these rains I am getting cracking in my Middleburg 
Its not like the French Prune where nearly all cracked, its something like 10-20%.
Man has this weather been rough. I don’t ever recall seeing my orchard so ratty-looking in September. It looks more like November and leaves ready to fall.
I had my first-fruit Brooks plum totally covered in the tough Big Bugs netting, through which I peered daily at the ripening fruit. Until it wasn’t there anymore. Something had torn a hole in the net, gone inside, and stolen the ripest plums, only bare seeds.
So I picked the rest, still not ready.
Pisses me off
I hear you. Those animals are large thorns on my side.
Scott,
Just went out to check my plums. A few cracked on Middleburg and no crack on French Improved!!!
I grafted two sticks of Middleburg, one on Castleton and the other on Coe’s. They both have fruit well this year. I somehow forgot to thin the fruit on the former and thinned well on the latter. There is a big diiference in fruit sizes.
These are the unthinned ones.
Do I need to wait until they turn to completely purple before I pick then? Lasy year I thought I waited until Oct and they were still not fully ripe.
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My “Castleton” picked today. This year I picked them a few days later than last year. Quite a few started to shriveled. Got about 16 lbs today. Altogehter I got about 20 lbs this year from this 4th year old tree.
I have eaten them for the past 10 days. The more shriveled, the sweeter. Sweet and plumey. Some have tangy taste to them. I had two friends tried them yesterday. They preferred this Castleton to Mirabelle.
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Now that’s a nice harvest. I got nothing from my Castleton this year- too much morning shade with all the rain. I’m surprised yours held on so long. They often do get sweeter and sweeter the longer they stay on the tree- as long as they hold their texture. This year I’ve had a lot of E. plums turn to mush instead of rounding off into a really great plum- but now the Valors are starting to have it.
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How big is that tree?
Alan,
For plums, I don’t mind they become soft. Very soft prune plums are fine by me. I grew up used to eating gooey prunes.
You may pick your Castletons more firm than me. Then, your area is about a week ahead of my location, for the most part. These factors could be while my seems so late.
Not big at all for a few reasons:
It was planted in my yard. It’s chaep, poor quality soil the builder used to built our yard.
I have bent most of limbs more horizontal ( some got away going up) so it looks spread out than going up
I don’t fertilize much at all. 10 10 10 or Plant Tone in early spring. That’s it.
I believe Limb bending and full sun have contributed to my E plums fruiting early and plentiful since last year when the trees were only 3 years old.
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I had my first fruits of “mirabelle ruby” and “Ferblue” this year.
These are very good plums. I will confirm next year.
Castleton is also a self-dwarfing early bearing variety. I believe that once a tree is in baring mode its grafts will also bare precociously. However, as you know, I’ve long advocated “festooning” the scaffolds of slow to bear plums. Pulling them below horizontal may induce lots of water sprouts but buds pulled low fruit quickly.
Prune plums don’t always get soft as they get as ripe as they can be and start to shrivel. To me, the somewhat firm, ripe ones are the truly amazing ones because they taste juicy and have more plum flavor. I have both on my Valor this year- the soft ones are to make sauce. (two are lubricating and sweetening my waffle as I type)
A Castleton I manage at another site that bore a huge crop this year (somewhat decimated by birds and yellow jackets) still had good plums on it yesterday. It has dawn to dusk sun. There are two Valors on the property that are vigorous 20 year old trees and had almost no crop. Victoria (3 trees), Damson (also 3) and Mt. Royal (2) all bore heavily as did every J. plum on the property. Longjohn barely bore also.
On my property and another site, Valor is very reliable.
I’ve made plum butter from mine - even more delectable
Could I please have a recipe? I have more plums than I know what to do with it.
Alan,
All my three plum trees, Castleton, Mirabelle Parfume de Septembre and Coe’s GoldennDrop have produced early and plentiful, not just the Castleton.
I complained that the Mirabelle took a year off this year but it still has plenty of fruit.
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Well Lady, you’re certainly tearing it up with your plums this year.
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For plum butter, it’s less a recipe than a process. If you’ve made apple butter, the process is similar
I pit and split the plums, then cook on low with just enough liquid* to keep them from scorching until they’re soft enough to be pureed with the stick blender. Then I add say a cup of sugar to a pound of plums and cook very low, stirring to keep from scorching, until a spoonful stands up on a plate with no liquid seeping.
A slow cooker w/o the lid on works for this, but you still have to stir
I don’t add spices, want it to taste like plums
I water-bath can this, so I can’t speak to its shelf life without
*If you can the plums [I recommend] the canning liquid is good for this
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Mrs. G.,
This is Empress which is very impressive witha size of an egg for a plum.
I took its pic with an egg, a Castleton plum, a mirabelle and a golf ball for a size comparison.
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Mirabelle is still my favorite, then Reine claude and finally, Damson. 