This has been coming down in torrents every day. I must have picked/gathered over 50 lbs so far. complex wine flavor with excellent sweetness. One of the best fruits I grow.
Looks awesome! How long did it take before it bloomed/fruited? Your pics make me antsy fir when ill get some to sample from mine
I think it started producing within 3-4 years. I planted the tree in 2005. When I got it, it was a combination Methley, Beauty, Hollywood and Shiro. Now only Shiro and Methley survive. It is now pretty large and produces maybe 60-70 lbs of Methley and 40 lbs of Shiro each year. It is completely troublefree. I’ve never sprayed it.
Methley might be the one of the best fruit trees you can grow in the PNW, not just the best plum. Raintree certainly feels that way.
https://raintreenursery.com/plantcare/2018/07/under-appreciated-plants-the-methley-plum/
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It’s wild how much location impacts fruit quality. I’m also in 8B but here in the south methley is “meh.” Texture is off-uputtingly mushy, flavor is nothing special and in my yard growth is painfully slow, especially when compared to my chickasaw plums. Looks like my methley is succumbing to canker but for me, no great loss. Your’s look amazing, though. Congratulations!
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Nice looking fruits! I put in a Methley plum early this spring, but through a combination of rainy weather and rabbits, the sapling died. I still have a Santa Rosa planted at the same time that will hopefully produce fruit next year. This year, I had maybe twenty blossoms, but no fruit. But, this was only third leaf.
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Some fruits only seem to do well in the West where we have lower humidity.
Morus Nigra grows well all along the west coast and even interior desert climate. But wont even survive in the East.
Plums in general dont like humidity it seems.
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I just measured the brix level of one of these at 23!
It seemed like the sweetest plum (not dried prune) that I ever ate. And the tastiest too.
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I am also growing many of these same plums here in PNW. Methley is spectacular! I completely agree. Shiro and Hollywood are also huge producers for me. I like peaches, but they are so hard to grow here. These three break branches because they are so full of delicious fruit. I am also trying to grow Beauty, Howard Miracle and Satsuma, but I don’t have these results yet. Also Euro plums are beasts for me. Enormous crops with no effort other than harvest.
John S
PDX OR
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I don’t know why my Methley growing very slowly, fruits size too small tasting not too sweet , very bland and boring. I removed it after 2nd year of growing . Maybe local nursery sold me wrong cultivar . Thank you for information Ram.
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Hi Vincent, it does look like Methley.
Methley needs to be completely ripe to taste good. The color needs to get fully dark.It even shrivels up a bit in the end. At that point it gets extremely sweet. With very pleasant wine like flavor.
Maybe other plums should be picked a bit early, I am not sure.
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I agree that European Plums are extremely good! I tasted a few of the gage plums last year and Stanley plum. They were very tasty. And freestone as well.
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I think you right. I recalled that : 1st year it had some fruits not much because of small tree, then squirrels clean all the fruits in one day at the end. I didn’t have chance to taste them. 2nd year I picked the fruits to early because don’t like the same thing happen again. That’s why fruit quality wasn’t too good at that time.
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I’ve done this a lot with my trees. Raccoons have been breaking branches on my Desert King tree for years! Squirrels and birds have been attacking them as well. So I’ve often pulled off figs that weren’t 100% ripe. And they’ve been quite disappointing.
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I do not have problems with birds and Raccoons too much yet , and one thing I can learn about squirrels, after a couple years they do not border the old fruit trees much any more even my fig tree.
John, perhaps you could save me a couple scions from your Methley this winter?
Yes, especially if you remind me.
John S
PDX OR
That’s always the hard part 
BTW, I gave Todd your contact info RE: HOS.
How much shade can methley tolerate and still be productive and disease free in the pnw? Will partial shade like 4-6 hours suffice? Or should I put a euro plum or pear in that 4-6 hour shade spot. That spot gets 4 hours or so of morning sun and then some more in the afternoon.
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My neighbor’s Methley gets black knot with only a couple hours of late afternoon shade.
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My methley gets 4-6 hours in summer here in Portland and does great.
John S
PDX OR
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