Looks just like Italian Prune Plum. Boy they were sweet and delicious, when left to hang on the tree!
Today, I picked all Coe’s. Brix was around 27-28. This last batch were soft ripe and very sweet. But overall, Coe’s this year was a big disappointment due to so many early drops.
10 Likes
Those look sweet. Were they also good, and just disappointing because they were few?
They were very good. They were my favorite last year when all ripened properly with a few early drops.
This year 80% dropped early. At first I could not notice any damage from outside. After cuttingg them up, almost every pldamaged area inside. If they were made by insects, they made very tiny holes, not the work of PC.
These last batch ripened properly so they were very good.
1 Like
Is this about the normal ripening window for them?I have a branch grafted,which probably came from your tree.Two fruit were growing,but taken, most likely by squirrels.bb
For my area, from early-mid Oct is the ripening time. You are in a warmer zone, it may ripen for you by early to mid Sept.
1 Like
Raintree says it ripens in October here, which is why I have not considered it. October is cold and wet for plum ripening in my part of Washington. They look like good plums.
In my orchard there was a lot of variability in the response of varieties to our very wet spring. Hopefully that is what caused all the early drops, the seeds weren’t viable and the tree was “smart” enough to drop the fruit.
It’s amazing how many of my plums, especially prune plums, had cracked pits this season. The best fruit had sound pits.
It’s not called Coe’s Golden Drop for nothing, eh? 
It is hard to keep the bugs off the late plums. Especially the ones with fat necks like Coe’s.
4 Likes
I start to believe that’s how it got the name 
@alan, you have mentioned split pit on peaches and plums due to our very wet spring condition. My peaches and plums hardly had any split pit. All the early dropped Coe’s and almost all my peaches had good seeds.
We are in different places and your trees probably come out of dormancy after mine. Yet rain storms we experience are often shared only a few hours apart. We have different soils and your trees are much younger than mine and we are often talking about different varieties.
Lots of possible explanations for different results, but I jumped to the conclusion your drops were the result of bad seeds because it seemed very logical.
Logic only takes you so far when you are using it to diagnose issues with trees you haven’t seen, growing in conditions you don’t know. I’m baffled on almost a daily basis by events in the orchards I tend and know about every aspect of their care.
2 Likes
those look like plums on my tree (size and shape) …my tree was labelled “damson”…upon looking up Damsons though…i am seeing larger , more oval plums…and the ones that look like little balls are bullaces…
There are several Damas. I discovered Damas of Touraine last month.
Yellow!
Digging up this old thread as I am interested in the feasibility of Euro plums in bay area (specifically San Jose). @Vohd, I’d like to gather some latest data points from you. How many chill hours do you usually get in your area? What Euro plums have you fruited so far? I see that Bavay, PdS, Coe’s GD were successful for you. Did your RdM and Pearl fruit as well? What rootstocks are your fruiting plums on? Citation? Did I understand correctly that your Bavay and PdS fruited in 1 year??
I have very good success with many euro plums in the bay area, Vallejo to be exact, grafted to prunus cerasifera seedlings.
1 Like
Euro plums are grown in Southern Europe, which is close enough to California climate. I am choosing Euro plums that are known to do well in S England, and Holland. I have convinced myself that anything that thrives in those climates will do even better with our dry/sunny Summers. I am currently trying to decide between Belle de Boscoop, Karmijn de Sonnaville, or one of the Cox sports to fill a gap in our apple orchard. I have planted Purple Gage, Green Gage, and Opal plums.
I would suggest finding the European region that most closely resembles yours, and find out what grows best there. Most parts of the West coast have a similar climate to parts of Europe. Just my two cents.
1 Like
There is no such thing as “California climate”. Places in California which are 50 miles apart can have drastically different climates. Especially, in the SF Bay Area, chill hours can vary dramatically over small distances, depending on how close to the bay you’re and/or the elevation. It’s not “one size fits all”.
3 Likes
There is absolutely a California climate. Every region of the planet, large or small, has a climate. We all know the difference between macro and micro climate, so I do not understand the point.
Describe “California Climate”.