Favorite Euro Plums

I wonder if there is any further info on Valton Plum ? I planted one this spring and have taken a chance ordering 2 more for fall planting based on the review at Hardy Fruit Trees (who sell the variety). I have found little info other than what is mentioned on their website and repeated elsewhere…

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Is that a kaolin spray ?

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Yup, many rounds for full strength Surround (kaolin clay) sprays.

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your comment on tomatoes made me snicker…for years now we’ve sort of operated on an understanding at my house that basically anytime I bring home Asian persimmons they came from an Asian market, same for fresh shiitake or king oyster mushrooms and a few other things…

when “regular” groceries think they have a shiny new object, you pay through the nose, so I get persimmons for as little as under a buck a pound on occasion, and never more than like $2, and the Kroeger wants like three bucks for a single fruit.

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Does anyone have pictures of their Jefferson plums?

Pics from nursery websites show yellow plums. Mine are reddish yellow. Not sure if they are true to the variety.

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Here is a link to a pick of mine. They get a little darker than this when riper:What fruits did you eat today? - #1587 by ztom
Mine was from Trees of Antiquity.

Here is a link to a pic from @Stan

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Thank you. Tree of Antiquity says Jefferson is a large golden yellow plum with orange flesh. From this description, @Stan’s Jefferson looked to be real. I am not sure what color flesh was yours.

Mine were small reddish/yellow skin plum with yellow flesh. Obviously Not Jefferson.

My Jefferson plums are uniformly large, oval shape, whitish bloom on the skin, dark yellow under the bloom, no red.

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@Stan and @ztom
Here are my imposter Jefferson. Only two of them this first year. Small orange with red blush and yellow/amber flesh.

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I wonder why northeastern growers seen to never talk about the Cornell series that includes Victory and Seneca. I had a couple of dead ripe Victory plums today that were the best I’ve had of any plums this season- and I’ve been eating some great plums.

The quality has something to do with the fact that they were from a fairly recently transplanted nursery tree, recovered for a year and then produced the plums this one. Lower vigor often produces superior fruit. To me, once a prune plum gets towards the mid-20’s brix and has a good texture that’s about as good as it gets- and these plums were impressively big, juicy with perfect texture.

You’d think more growers would try varieties specifically bred to do well in our region.

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My first Reine Claude de Bavay. This one cracked and dropped. The rest (about 10) will follow.

Left to right: Coe’s Golden Drop, Reine Claude de Bavay and Castleton.

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Here is the Mirabelle Violette . The fruits are very small this year at the edge of the lack of water. But at least you have the color. aha.

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Middle plum looks identical to what Cummins sells as green gage. Mine are good and bad this year. Can’t tell until I take a bite. Not a great plum in its location of somewhat limited sun.

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It is supposed to be Bavay and it is yellow, not green.
Here they are on its branch (grafted).

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Yeah, those are yellower than mine. I should get a stick and try that one. I’m tired of mine.

I got mine from @mrsg47.

I have Green Gage but it is so unproductive I remove the biggest branch and left a small one on. I don’t have patience to wait years.

So far, my first Bavay was good but not great yet.

By the way, my Elephant Heart plum was almost completely dead so I harvested every one a month ago. Because I have so many other plums to test and taste they have sat in my fridge all that time. I ate one today that was delicious and still with perfect texture- some crispness to it.

I bet Zaiger used it to breed all their red-fleshed pluots. It is as good as or better than any of them IMO.

This coming winter I cut down my Flavor Grenade (I dont’ like its Citation rootstock so won’t graft it over). It was good its first year but the fruit still on the tree this one are ripe but extremely bland. The haven’t gotten up the sugar. Same deal with my Laroda plum. Worthless here. Maybe with dawn to dusk sun they could get up a couple more points in brix but I can’t provide that.

My Two Elelphant hearts are still in the fridge. Out of sight, out of mind :smile:

I picked a few Euro plums today. I go by what the tags say (quite a few mislabeled I’ve found out).


Top row from left to right:
Coe’s Golden Drop. Big disappointment this year. 50% of them dropped prematurely with no reason. The ones that looked ripe were not sweet and rather dry. Could not squeeze juice out. No brix reading.

Vision- very large and great tasting. Sweet with a bit of tang. Brix 21.

Bottom row:
Middleburg (could be Imperial Espineuse - rather bland, firmer flesh and not juicy enough to get brix.

Unknown (French Improved?). Very sweet, soft texture. Excellent. Brix 26.

Castleton - I let mine become very ripe and soft. Brix 24. The ones that I picked when firmer were not as sweet.

@scottfsmith - could you please let me know whether or not my Middleburg is correct and the unknown is French Improved?

Several Middleburg have not ripened yet.

The Unknown are small to medium, reddish color. Ripening time started a few days ago. Excellent taste.

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The one on the left could be a not-ripe Middleburg. They are more like the color of the plum on the right when they are ripe. I still have some hanging, it is a very late plum.

Middleburg was great for a few years but then it got bad aphids and the tree really slowed down its growth and the fruit had only been OK since then. So not sure how reliable it is. None of the Euro plums has been completely consistent for me, French this year was fine but not great. Coe’s and Bavay’s were my only knockout ones this year. I had a great load on my Reine Mirabelles but the woodchuck really liked that one, he took every single plum.

Hey I have one left on the counter, here is a picture with some other random fruits:

I ate it just now, the brix on it was 23.

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Thank you. It’s good to see the color of ripe Middleburg.

Do you think the middle plums on the second row could be French Improved? Whatever they are they are great.