Plumhill —> Does your Jefferson bloom earlier than other Euros? I have a few Jeffersons from TOA also, and two years in a row they started blooming with the Asians, or even earlier. One good thing is that is seems like the bloom period is spread out. Mine started early this year and many buds got zapped, but I ended up with 15 to 20% bloom. Now we’ll see if they survive this weekend with possible overnight snow and a low down to 31.
OK that doesn’t sound like the dud I got. Mine was a purplish prune-shaped plum that was exceedingly bland.
I had Imperial Epineuse, it rotted too much so I topworked it. Here late plums are the key since its less hot then, Bavays does well here for that reason.
Hello, I would not say Jefferson is significantly earlier than the other euros here. Bloom times here in Vermont have a lot to do with the temperature. Since this is Vermont, everything has met its chill requirement before spring. If the spring is cool you get a progression of blooms, Apricot, the Jap plums, then euros then peaches. If it is cold followed by temperatures in the eighties for a couple of weeks everything blooms at the same time. Are your trees in a warmer micro climate? My tree fruited last year when frosts knocked the buds off most of the trees and cut our normal production by 2/3rds so they are fairly hardy.
What is the fruit like? are they gages? I’ve had a lot of mis-labeled trees delivered here.
Eric
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I’ve only got to try a few from the tree. They looked like a gage and tasted like a good plum. I’d give them a B+. I picked them a little bit early and I think they could have gotten sweeter. The trees themselves are my most vigorous.
I’ve gotten gages over 30 brix, the juice is like syrup.
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I take it that this is more that unripe ones aren’t that good, as opposed to good ones being all the same?
That sounds incredibly good. That’s a jujube-level of sugar. Or anything that Fruitnut grows! 
Which cultivars did you get that high?
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For Euro plums I think the picking point is particularly important. Several years ago I happened on one Coe’s Golden Drop that I missed and should have been picked a week ago, it was barely hanging on to the tree. Wow, it tasted like heaven and it set the standard for what a Euro plum could taste like. I also pulled out some trees early on that I think I never tasted a fruit ripe enough on to really appreciate. Fellenberg is one such plum.
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The one with the skin showing measured 31 brix. The tree was at my place when I bought it, I assume it is generic Green Gage, because the other trees didn’t seem special. I’ve since ripened another named gage I’ve grafted to an adjacent peach tree and the ripe fruits looked identical. It may have been Cambridge gage. I can look for the tag.
I agree with Scott, the longer they hang, the sweeter they get, and I’m not watering the tree in the summer. Its big and established, I don’t know if it is finding the water table with its roots. The ones that are just cracking, or starting to wrinkle, are the sweetest I think.
The other plums in picture are mirabelles.
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Bob, Murkey is right. My Bavay, turns almost transparent when fully ripe (except for a slight frosted look to the skin) but once cut in half, the plum looks like a piece of ‘candied’ fruit.
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Thats it!!!
I don’t know about you Eric, but Cummins has been the worst about this for me. I only have about 30 Euro plum trees. 7 of those I got from Cummins and at least two I know of were mislabeled.
I agree about the “generic” green gage. Mine’s a fairly old tree and it never seems to produce more than a 1/2 bushel or so. Rosy gage is much more productive.
I had an Imperial Epineuse at one time, but it died its first year for some reason.
That’s really strange. Here Euros bloom at least a couple weeks after peaches.
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Bob, @alan et al,
When do your Castleton ripen? Mine are still hard even though most have turned blue for a couple of weeks now. I would like to avoid picking them too early.
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I won’t have any this year, as I lost the last of mine well over a month ago. The animals finished what didn’t drop from bug bites.
I got some at the farmer’s market last weekend which were pretty good, with upper teen brix. The guy there said that they’ve been dropping for a bit and have been ripening very unevenly this year.
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My French Prune coming in now are at around 25 brix. If they ripen fully they can approach 30, and they get an even richer flavor when they get that ripe. Overall it is a truly excellent plum. Given all the critter stealing I am harvesting things on the early side this year.
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Bob,
I feel for you re. critters eating our fruit. I am still mad that my only Magness pear was gone while I was away.
I have maybe, 20 Castleton left on the tree inside the bags. The trees are in the front. Usually, squirrels do not come this far. They stay in the backyard where it’s closer to woods.
@scottfsmith, your French prune sounds excellent. I’ve never had any fruit going over 20 brix.
My 3 E plum trees look horrible. Many leaves turn brown and crispy. Some branches turn brown. It is not a dry summer like last year. In fact, it’s opposite. If they are dying, it’d be because the area is too wet as they are planted near the wettest area on the yard. I planted them on mounds bout after a few years, mounds are almost leveled.
I really don’t know what’s wrong with these plum trees. Headache induced!!!
I picked a couple of Castleton today out of curiosity. They were semi-soft, not quite ripe yet. The flesh was clear. The taste was sweet with a hint of a prune taste to it. They were my first home grown E pears and they did not disappoint me.
I know Castleton is not the best tasting E plum but it is better than any store- bought plums I have Eaten. Home grown stone fruit are almost always a cut above comparing to store bought.
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Picked half of Castleton today. Several are not soft to a touch so I left them on the tree.
Some of the ones I picked were softer than the others. My husband and I ate the soft ones right away (without ripening them on a counter). They were very nice and sweet. I measured the brix. The first was 22 which wowed me. Then the 2nd and 3rd were 25 and 27 brix. They blew me away.
I think the weather has something to do with it. We have had a lot of sun and no rain for the past 10 days. Perfect harvesting weather.
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I’m having a good year with plums- many varieties. Nothing over the low 20’s yet. Have to get some French prune wood and see what it does, but anything above 20 works for me. The most interesting E.plum has been Autumn Sweet, I guess I did measure one that had something like 24. It gets up high sugar while still crisp, almost like a pluot.
My problem hasn’t been squirrels- it’s been yellow jackets. They deprived me of the opportunity to harvest ripe Flavor Grenade pluots this year which would have been mind boggling. Started trapping them out too late.
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Scott,
When do you Coe’s GD ripen, please?
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Due to the tremendous rainfall last week my mirabelle de Metz are exploding again. 
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