Favorite Euro Plums

[mamuang]

My J plums are in partial. Inadequate sunlight and too much rain is a bad combo.

My E plums are in full sun, like 9 am to sundown. They set plenty of fruit. I have to go find those two rotted ones in a trash can before I could cut them up.

[mrsg47]

I would love just 1. I lost every one.

[scottfsmith]

Something is swiping many of mine as well… all my Bavays and Golden Transparent Gage got swiped as they ripened. Most of the French Prune also got swiped. This year it looks like Middleburg will be my only good haul on my Euros. Assuming they don’t get swiped…

[mrsg47]

You must have enough squirrel pelts for a coat!

[scottfsmith]

I fed them to foxes … I probably am single-handedly responsible for keeping a few babies fully fed as they grew up. Maybe thats why I see more foxes now

[mrsg47]

You lucky guy!!! Foxes are wonderful!

[mamuang]

Scott,
Do you have the same damage on your plums like the pic I posted above. Alan said it’s black knot. How do you deal with black knot on fruit?

[mrsg47]

Alan said black rot. Is it the same as black knot?

[mamuang]

My bad, black rot, not black knot. Still, want to know how people handle black rot!!

[mrsg47]

I want to know what it is.

[mamuang]

Yup. Can’t find black rot in plums. There is black rot in apples, but not plums.

[scottfsmith]

I have gotten a few fruits like that, its infrequent enough that I never got concerned. It happens on the tops only. It looks like black rot on grapes, maybe its the same thing - @alan?

[alan]

Sorry, my understanding is not at all scientific and I don’t even know if I invented the term “black rot” for the black colored rot on stone fruit or read someone else using it. It appeared a great deal in my orchard last year and I noticed an apparent correlation to rotting fruit and split pits, although plenty of split pits in peaches and nects doesn’t end up rotting this way. I also noticed that, unlike brown rot, fungicide had little affect on it. Excessive rain in late spring and early summer seem to encourage the disease and I seriously doubt there’s a thing a grower can do about it besides pray for drought so I never bothered having the disease checked out by a pathologist, even though it has appeared to a lesser extent this season- especially on nects.

On peaches and nects it is about the ugliest affliction I’ve ever seen on fruit. It seems to strike almost overnight, although I’m sure it was inside the fruit for quite a while.

That said, I welcome a more scientific identification if someone wants to take a sample in to their local cooperative extension and pay the money to send it out to a pathologist. I just did a search and found absolutely nothing on the condition besides many links to discussing black mold on split peach pits when fruit is cut open and whether this makes eating them dangerous.

[ltilton]

Mine weren’t so much swiped from the tree as dropped to the ground

[Steve333]

Unless you keep chickens…

[mamuang]

By this time of the year, leaves of my E plum trees look tired. However, I have noticed that tips of my Middleburg branches look paritcularly ratty like they are dying. It has been like this last year, too.

I can’t say it does not have enough water. We have had so much rain until 4 days ago. Still, Middleburg tips look worse comparing to other varieties.

Any suggestion what’s the cause?

[mrsg47]

This is amazing to me. I bet you had rain today. We were supposed to have rain and a thunderstorm tonight. Nothing! Not a drop. I can see the clouds holding tight to the shore facing south. I would think your leaves would be lush. All three large apple trees are pretty leafless. It looks like fall. What is odd is the Montmorency cherry is healthy and in full green leaves!

[mamuang]

Only the tips of Middleburg plums look like this. The rest don’t look as bad. My apples and pears look great.

[jxz7245]

I also want to know the answer. My Golden Transparent Gage is doing this as well, I thought maybe lack of water but it is the only tree in a row of 18 euro plums that looks like this. The others are lush and normal.

[alan]

Here’s my answer- leaf hoppers, aphids, fungal disease- all or any one. Often E. plums stop growing by mid-summer and partially defoliate, but some varieties and seasons more than others. Where I’ve maintained a summer long anti-fungal program and couple interventions against hoppers, I’m not seeing it this year, but where I stopped spraying in spring I am- even at my own site where crop trees have been sprayed more- some varieties suffer more than others. The varieties more resistant seem to also be more reliable croppers.

I’m beginning to believe that marsoninna leaf blotch is part of the fungal complex in our region. Haven’t had any leaves looked at by a pathologist, but the splotching is identical to what I see on apple leaves with the disease.

For some reason, leaf hoppers don’t like J. plums.

Here’s a tip you won’t likely find elsewhere. Like OFM, leafhoppers and aphids can be controlled with a minimum of spray by only targeting growing tips- even if you miss some of the tips control will be adequate. Most seasons, the fungal issues are not present to the level of causing early defoliation- but if you have leaf-hoppers they are there every year. Little white specks that jump off the growing tips when they are disturbed.