I already did that and my sales agent only said she passed my comments on to the appropriate people. It is often difficult to get people to admit making mistakes- have you noticed? I’m quite happy to admit that I make mistakes all the time- and I also see other people doing it so what’s the point in pretending to be 100% competent. Too much work for me.
Adams once did admit to me that their falsely selling a green colored J. plum as a Green Gage was not accurate, but they completely justified it saying GG was too difficult to grow in our region anyway… but that green plum didn’t do so hot either. At least this time it is a plum quite worth growing and it’s not Japanese.
Incidentally, shortly after I complained about the fake green gage they started selling something genuine- maybe they will start selling the real valor again- but I hope that doesn’t stop them from selling the fake one.
Alan,
I got this “Green Gage” plum from scion exchange. The scionwood has grown into a large limb in two years. It produced one fruit this year. It had some rot on the top making the plum inedible. The pics could not capture the real color. It was pale but dull green. The fruit was squatty round, definitely not oblong.
Do you or anyone know if this was a real Green Gage?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Its not like the French Prune where nearly all cracked, its something like 10-20%.
