Green Gage: The Holy Grail Of Stone Fruits

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I have to add one of these trees one day…

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I have a green gage plum tree that i’ve had for two years. Last year it had one plum the size of a dime. It fell off after about two weeks. This year it did’nt produce any fruit. It is about eight feet tall. I am hopefull i’ll get fruit next year.

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I grafted Green Gage in 2015/16?. The graft has grown so vigorously and took up 1/4 of my Coe’s Golden Drop. Last year, it flowered a bit and set two fruit. Only one stay to maturity with some damage. The tasted was sweet but did not wow me. Coe’s tasted a lot better but that was only one Green Gage.

This year, it flowered some more. 4-5 fruit set but then, all dropped. I got tired of this scaffold taking over the tree but barely produced. Last month I saw off the whole large branch, leaving one small branch. The tree looks better now and more sunlight can reach other branches.

It has taken up too much space with little to no production.

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Well that’s two votes for not growing it in zone 6 …

(edit) … although it’s working fine for RichardRoundTree in zone 5 with pollinator Opal.

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Yes, I’m not that fond of super sweet fruit anyway, but still wanted to try it, or some other euros. Some will work well here, just has not been that high on my want list.
I tend to like tart fruits. I made pink currant syrup today and man it came out good.

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My problem is I am never sure WHICH green gage is the “real one”. I have a “Bevay’s Green Gage” that I got from Peaceful Valley/Dave Wilson but I’m not sure if that is the one talked about in the article or by other people or what is what. Its a slow grower that hasn’t fruited yet but this is only its 3rd year.

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@Stan “Stan’d Harvest Diary “ thread has excellent pics of his various gage plums. I hope you check the thread out.

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I have to say i am not that fond of super sweet fruits and yet what i would describe with my Bavays Gage was a extremely pleasant sweet and complex flavour. I immediately got another plum to help pollinate it, as while it is self fertile it doesn’t seem to put on a ton of fruits when it fertilizes its own eggs. I am in zone 5 and have had it be a pretty happy plant.

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What plum did you obtain for pollination?

I got Opal even though it is related to green gage there was alot of english gardeners saying it made a good pollinator.

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Scott can probably confirm, but my understanding is Euro plums get annihilated by bugs and fungus here, and GG worst of all.

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That would be everything here, so you do the best you can.

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So maybe its not just me! All my euro plums are DEFINATELY magnets for every bug and fungus that comes near my orchard. They also are among my slowest growing stone fruit- in part because bugs keep eating up all the growth. My smaller trees often have no green left on them at all after certain bug attacks (Japanese Beetles, etc) so its almost impossible to get them to put on new growth. They get black knot 100 times more than my Japanese Plums. In short, mine are just very challenging. I had heard others (I do think @scottfsmith is one) complain about this but I still wasn’t sure if it was just at some locations or if Euro Plums are just susceptible to these problems almost everywhere in the U.S.

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I do think some are worse than others, but through the years, everything I have is attacked in some way. From raspberry borers to SWD eating any fruit available, stone fruit, even figs.

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@BG1977 If you aren’t living in Santa Rosa, California or someplace like it, you’re in for pests whether year one or they move in. I’ve read that so many times in this group.

Dax

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Kevin,
My Euro plums have more black knot than E plum even though they are in the best planting spot of full sun.

Here are my Bavay setting fruit for the first time.

My J plums are in the back yard near tall trees and get 40-60 % of sun. They have black knot but not as much as E plums.

@RichardRoundTree, I have two grafts of Opal, one on each E plum tree. Both grafts flowered profusely and set fruit abundantly. I thought Mirabelles set fruit like mad. Opal beats them. It sets as many fruit, if not more, and the fruit are also larger.

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Your plums lookmgreat. I live in zone six and have not had any bug problems. I have a green gage and a methle plum tree.

Zone does not tell the whole story. You need to let us know your location for us to have a better picture.

Zone 6 in CA and zone 6 in MA are two different stories.

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I live in central Ohio.

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