although it’s small in size, I really like Mirabelles for its sweetness, easy grow, and reliable, productive. Unfortunately, animals harvested all my mirabelles for me.
@mamuang mentioned black knot issues with Mirabelle de Nancy and Septembre. Have others had similar experiences with their Mirabelles?
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I think mirabelles are good to have for variation. In my opinion it doesnt need thinning like my other plums( im not a huge fan of mega sweet plums). So it still taste so sweet without thinning. And is anyone here growing Jubilee or Jubileum plums? I have one since 2 years and im so in love with it that im thinking of cutting down half my variaties just to graft that one there aswell mmmmmmm
If taste is the only basis, so far in its first fruiting, my mirabelle is one of two that were quite heavenly. Contrary to a few comments from others who described it as just a “sugar bomb”, it actually had an interesting complexity that reminded me of an expensive perfume. I guess i may have a different strain of mirabelle, given the shape of my mirabelle differed from others posted in this forum. Then there’s terroir… So to answer the question of the original post, mirabelle is definitely something to plant.
After the first fruiting, my only complaint so far is I didn’t get more than a handful on the one branch of graft and they were so tiny…about the size of grapes!
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Hi to all fruit trees lovers !
First post here, so I thank you all for all the knowledge I have acquired here ! No need to ask a question when you guys have already generously taken so much time to answer and explain ! Thank you !
For once I might have an interesting information, especially about mirabelle plums.
For them to have their typical perfect perfume, there must be a huge temperature difference between nights and days. Hence hot and sunny during the day and a huge drop as soon as sunset arrives.
That is why they are grown in the north east of France.
I am in the south and love them, but the ones I grow are sweet but more tasteless than the crappy ones from Nancy or Metz areas found in supermarkets.
Thanks again ! Have a good day !
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I always presumed most places have a massive difference between day time and night time in the fall when these would likely bear fruit. Around August here we will literally go from 60-80 degree day to a 40 degree night. Then in September we may dip into the 30s at night and around Halloween we get our first frost here.
@jxz7245 do any of your mirabelles smell like an expensive euro perfume? I’m curious what mirabelle I have because while a few people have described their mirabelle as “all sweet and not much else”, mine is actually quite complex,…it’s sweet and is like eating a sweet subtly complex perfume. My only complaint so far is they’re so tiny…barely 1" diameter.
@nil… I started two EU Plums in 2018… Rosy Guage and Mt Royal.
My Rosy Guage got black not a couple times… in different years. I removed entire branch to get rid of it… last spring it started off looking fine and Rosy Guage and Mt Royal both set just a few blossoms last spring for the first time.
When Rosy started leafing out… all of a sudden the leaves on the tree started wilting… sort of from the top down… eventually all leaves wilted… dead plum tree. I removed it.
My Mt Royal lives on and this spring has hundreds of blossoms open right now. It is supposes to be self pollinating… yesterday i got out there with an artist paint brush and dabbed softly on each blossom. Hopefully spreading the pollen around to all. There were some pollinators helping too… no honey or bumble bees… but lots of smaller bee, wasp, fly looking pollinators.
My blueberries just 15 ft away were covered in butterflies and bumbles… but none of those were visiting the Mt Royal.
Different flower types … i guess… preferred by different pollinators.
Hopefully between me doing some hand pollination and all these smaller pollinators visiting my Mt Royal… all alone by itself… it will produce some plums this year. I sure hope so.
Anyway… you mentioned Rosy Guage… and wanted to let you know i had bad luck with that variety… black knot 2 times then death from some kind wilt.
My Rosy and Mt Royal were in a 2 in 1 planting… about 3 ft apart… Mt Royal never got black not and so far has been a nice healthy tree.
I need to find a good pollinator for it and graft a few branches on to help it with pollination.
Does anyone know if this Green Guage Clark mentioned would work for that ?
I will see if I can find a EU Plum flowering group chart.
TNHunter
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@Marco …
Found Bavays Green Guage at Bob Wells.
Not sure if they sell scion.
Looks like my Mt Royal is known to produce good crops with no other pollinator.
Will see how that works out this year.
I would not mind adding a few grafts of BGG to it. If you do find scion of BGG let me know please. Per Bob Wells it is self pollinating.
Thanks
PS… Orange Pippin calls it Old Green Guage…and says it is in FG3… and my Mt Royal is suposed to be FG3 also.
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I know that with a pollinator it dependably sets heavy crops here- a top 3 in reliability over a great many others. I used to think it was mediocre, but eventually realized that it was the result of bearing too much fruit. Thin, thin, thin and the plums will sweeten up like most prune plums, getting that amber flesh of a truly ripe plum.
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