@CharlesD, I find it doubtful you will get a response from @sifipps. They haven’t made a post on the forum in 4 years, but maybe another member from the south will be able to respond to your question.
I have methley and it’s doing great. We’re at about 47 degrees north? Near Portland, OR
Zone 8b/9a.
John S
PDX OR
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This was an exceptionally good plum year in my area. Gave us a good opportunity to see which ones cannot store well and must be consumed before they spoil. Among the prunelike ones I have to say that my Stanley is superior to Empress when it comes to time before spoiling. While any rainfall during ripening season causes Empress to spoil on the tree before picking, Stanley avoids that issue and even keeps weeks in refrigeration. Empress on the other hand is superior in size and is every bit as tasty as Stanley. While we lost probably 1/2 of the Empress fruit before we could consume or preserve it, we lost very few Stanleys. Methley and Beauty are great pollinators but like Empress do not keep long. So far we have not seen a black knot issue, so maybe we are lucky.
Sweet Treat is phenomenal, can’t have too many of those, I’ve grafted them everywhere. Obilnaya is very much a fav like Sweet Treat. Next year we have many more that should produce so hopefully we find a way to curb our aphid raids early enough to test more varieties.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Yeah. I didn’t think to check the age of his post until my finger was already 50% through it’s downstroke to send. Momentum did me in.
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We almost always have ample rainfall throughout the ripening season but Empress has no difficulty ripening here- as long as the season is long enough. It’s about as late as we can go on most seasons. Stanley is not on my list of superior prune-plums, but then, I abandoned it a long time ago when it showed a tendency of dropping while still green, never obtaining the amber color of prune plums at full ripeness and sweetness. I replaced it with Castleton in my nursery.
I want E. plums to reach at least 20 brix, which may be very easy in the West, but grey skies and wet weather, probably mostly the former, for plums, can detract from sugar development. My sister has a problem getting the sugar up for plums on the N. Ca. coast close to the Oregon border, although global warming is helping her. It isn’t rain, but fog and perhaps cool temps that hinder high brix there.
I prefer Valor to Empress because it gets a bit sweeter and ripens sooner than Empress, but nothing beats Empress for reliable cropping here. It is also precocious for an E. plum. It’s large size makes for very impressive plum tarts. Valor ripens over a much longer time frame, which makes harvesting difficult because you can’t tell a ripe plum by its color. You can let the grass grow for a cushion and shake the tree.
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Our Methley plum is 5 years old and has not produced plums yet. However, we had a late, hard freeze during bloom that killed most other blooms. We had a young Methley plum a few years ago that I picked 10 gallons from. Very nice plums. Mid-Missouri zone 6b
John, you live in a paradise for growing things. Your state is among the most beautiful, in my book. My wife and I used to do mobile hearing testing in 13 Western states. We loved Oregon very much. We’d pick the wild blackberries by the bucket full. There’s such lush beauty everywhere.
I think the propagation expert and youtuber, Mike Kincaid, is in Oregon.
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Hi Charles,
Mike Kincaid’s nursery is in Yelm,Washington,which is a beautiful area too.
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Methley has a lot of plums weeks before the other varieties, which I like. I think that @murky grows Beauty for the same role. Beauty may be larger than Methley, which is somewhat small. I really like it though.
John S
PDX OR
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I don’t know if I said here, but I had a fresh Beauty, grown by somebody else, that really opened my eyes that it could be good fresh.
I’ll have to experiment with extensive thinning sometime to see if I can get that result. It has plenty of flavor and acid for me, but not nearly enough sugar while it still has any firmness. But this one from a farm share was different from mine. It tasted (somewhat) like mine do after they are sweetened, which is delicious.
Beauty is great for processing. Raw made great popcicles/sorbet. Cooked makes great jam. Beautiful color, super flavorful and fruity, and as sweet as needed for balance from added sugar.
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It looked like Oregon or Washington. Love his channel. Years ago the wife and I used to pass throungh the PNW twice a year for work. Nearly every night, in season, we’d find wild blackberries growing everywhere and would put them on ice cream. What a great place!
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Murky, hello.
I have just two Methley. They’ve only been in the ground for about 9 months.
I want to add 2-3 more plum. Toka? Ozark Beauty? Elephant Heart? Im in 7b, Arkansas.
Do you have any special recommendations?
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I’m in the in WA near Portland. I think real different conditions.
Here for Japanese plums Howard Miracle is delicious, although can be a little shy bearing. Aside from Beauty, Shiro and AU Producer have been productive and healthy for me. I’m not a big fan of Shiro fresh, but it has a great growth habit, is healthy, and regularly bears heavily. I juice mine and really enjoy it sweetened and mixed with carbonated water.
I’m not familiar with Toka or Ozark Beauty, and if I’ve had Elephant Heart, it wasn’t a good sample.
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Thanks
I’m a little further south than you zone 8B. My methley plum is only four years old, but it’s been producing the last two years. It always blooms early end of January or first week in February. It is in full bloom now . I have hopes for my Santa Rosa this year but not certain . My AU producer and my Burbank plum didn’t make it two years. Just purchased an Ozark premiere it is supposed to be good for my area. We will see.
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I grew this for one year in SW VA and it was covered in black knot, which its reported to be very resistant against. I’m looking for a self-fertile plum that grows without spray in VA if anyone has any suggestions!
No spray is not going to happen with any variety of plum in VA. I’m at the north end of the state and it’s maximum spray here. Brown rot and PC will destroy most if not all of the fruit. As a side note, everyone on the forum labels methley as a black knot magnet.
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I find that late freezes and late frosts are more of a problem than either black knot or insects/rots for my 14 year Methley. Its in full bloom now and I am closely watching the weather forecast. For the last 5-6 years I have lost the crop for freezes. I plan to stay up the entire night if a forecast is made that threatens the the plums this year. Maybe build fires around the tree or something.
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Yes, totally agree. My meth is very consistent unless there’s a light frost or freeze because it always blossoms early January. Was loaded and in full blossom late January then we had a cold snap got down to 27 and that was the end of my plums this year. I only have four plum trees now, but I think I need another pollinator. The meth is finished by the time anything else blooms
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Your plums blossoms in january? Wow thats wild! Why do they do that?