Is this a Damson plum? I have a branch of damson plum grafted to a Castleton tree. That branch flowered this spring but I colud not remember if it set any fruit.
This one plum fell on the ground near Damson branch. There is no other plum on that branch. It does not look like a Castleton.
Small plum, shape like a tear drop. Dark skin, dark, soft flesh. Due to lot of rain, it had lot of juice. Not very sweet. I could not detect any tastness. Brix was @13. It could have tasted better if the weather was drier, I guess.
Looks like a Methely. Maybe someone sent you mislabeled wood. They usually don’t have a ton of taste and would be ripe to past ripe there now, probably. Damson would be about a month away and tends to form clusters of round fruit with firm amber flesh. My Gold Dust just finished so we seem to be on similar schedule. It was a good peach- better than Glenglo, BTW.
Well, I hope not. My Nadia is no where near my Castleton. I also have Nadia. This plum was deep blue, almost black. Nadia is not as dark as this and a bit bigger. This dark plum reminded me of the name “blue Damson”.
If real Damson is supposed to ripen a month from now. This definitely is not Damson, then. I will keep it in mind next year. Hopefully it will fruit more so I could show you guys more evidence for ID.
I agree with Alan. The pictured fruit looks like it has Asian plum genes, not Euro genes. I’m not a damson expert, but the flesh of all the damsons I can recall eating was light honey to amber color with sometimes maybe a hint of red at the skin margin.
I have about 20 damsons on my tree this year. Play your cards right and I’ll mail you a package with a few interesting fruits in it. (I don’t know what playing your cards right actually means for you, but that’s how we talk out here in long-time gambling country).
Actually, now that I think about it, playing your cards right looks exactly like having enough growth on Herefordshire Russet to have a stick available this winter. Looks like the tree I have it grafted to is going to die this year. I’ve had quite the die off of my first generation of grafted trees in the past two years. I grafted a bunch on G16 and G30 about 10 years ago, but kept poor notes at the time and don’t know what’s grafted to what in that generation. I’m assuming it’s the G16 trees dying off, since they are quite virus sensitive and all these trees were multi grafted, so even if the initial grafting wood, all from the Geneva repository, were clean, chances seem good that later grafts might have been infected with something. Anyway, I’ll be on the lookout for a few of the better apple varieties among my losses.
Neil,
I used to like to play card games. Now, I am very rusty. Anyhow, you are such a kind person, I hope I will be on your good list for scionwood
I grafted a bunch of apples these past 2-3 years. I may have some scionwood you want. I have heard not so good things about G 16. Sorry to hear that a bunch of your grafts are on them.
So, look like I do not have Damson after all. Thanks for @alan and your input.
@mrsg47, I have a huge branch of “Mirabelle de Nancy” (or another mislabeled) on my Castleton. It is as big as other scaffold of the Castleton. I hope I like this Mirabelle. It takes up so much space on my tree. I love Castleton. PC and OFM love them, too. They hardly have any hit any mirabelle but attacked Castleton big time two years in a row. Very frustrating.
I have American Mirabelle- the fruit was small and nothing special to my palate. Reine Claude seems to be a winner though. Early for such a rich prune plum and so far it seems determined to set fruit. That is the most essential element for me.
You were here to get the scion yourself. Both mirabelles, Nancy and Metz,you labeled them beautifully! But after grafting, just months ago, will they fruit?
Not those scion. This was 2016 or 2017 graft from someone I can’t remember. I did not even remember I have this graft until this year when it sets fruit that looks totally different from Castleton.
@alan had 2 very good guesses. Bland sweet, with not that high of brix sounds exactly like Methely. And the looks do remind me of Nadia, though I didn’t get any this year. And the timing could work for either.
I had very little fruit-set on my Euro plums (again…). Even though almost all of them bloomed profusely, only Jam Session and Damson (the two I’m least excited about trying) have any set.
I was looking at them today and decided that maybe they are having the same problem as the kiwi- not enough sun due to thick (mostly un-pruned) growth. Even if that isn’t the issue, it is probably making the black knot much worse.
So I set out to thin out the growth and bring the trees back to earth, as well as removing black knot. They have gotten 15+ feet tall and I’m cutting them back to where I can reach with 3’ pruners (about 10’). Sunset caught up with me before I could finish a 2nd tree. Here’s a pic of the first one pruned (Valor on the left), with an un-pruned one on the right for comparison. I probably should have gotten the real camera with a wide angle lens to show the height difference as well.
The one height exception I’m planning to make is for the Jam Session. If there is fruit on a branch above 10’, then it gets a temporary reprieve, until the fruit has been harvested (maybe another month?).
You can tell which one is pruned, as you can see through it
Bob, at the site you came to last year to pick some apples and a couple others, set of non-self-fruitful plums was thin. The talk at my cooperative extension was about a lack of pollinators this spring, but it seemed to be only a problem at the time of E. plum flowering. No issues with J. plums. The Damsons set very well at that site.
Castleton is a good variety to establish plums around- it is the most reliable of E. plums I grow. It is crazy loaded at the Heffernan site as is Mt. Royal. .
Oullins ripens in early Aug. Montfort a couple weeks after- there’s an early prune-type I grow at one site whose name I’ve lost that ripens in mid to late Jully. Castleton really should ripen in Aug, but it is weird this year and not ripening properly. Gets soft spots and drops off the tree without getting high sugar. Adam’s has sold me a bunch of plum trees as valor, but it is a round small prune plum that ripens a bit before Castleton on a normal year- bout mid-Aug. It’s very sweet and decidedly no Valor which gets good size and ripens through Sept. usually. The late spring and endless rain has shaken up ripening times this year.
Last year we had pretty normal summer. My Castleton did not fully ripen until mid Sept. Ibwish it ripened in August. I checked those that dropped were bugged. The clean ones are still hard.
