We had over four inches of rain two days ago. I was forced to pick all of my mirabelles (ripe or not) as they all exploded from the bottom and were starting to be covered by earwigs and ants. Geesh! Its always something. I had no idea the rain fall would do that to my small plums. The Italian plums were fine. I’ll post pics of the mirabelles tomorrow. Also picked all of my Early Crawfords yesterday and they are delicious! My Elbertas are turning into footballs. I have never had them get this big! 
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Oh my goodness! Can’t wait to see the Mirabelles, very excited about my trees coming. You’ll have to post some photos of your Elbertas with something in the photo for size comparison, too, mrsg.
As far as I’m concerned, those are two dirty words. I managed to keep my zukes going even though they were attacked repeatedly by by SVB, only to lose them in the end to earwigs, of all things.
All I can say is that at least you don’t have fire ants. I posted some time back about how they managed to get inside my apples through tiny holes, eat their merry way along and fill the empty area with hundreds of ants, and you’d never know from looking at the outside. It made me shudder to think of what would have happened if one of the grandkids had picked one and bitten into it.
I hope you had plenty of mirabelles and that they were still in good enough condition to be able to eat them to your heart’s content, and still have enough left over to put your canning skills to use.
It’s really been a roller coaster of a year in your orchard. Hasn’t it?
Some plums crack in the rain, some not so much- I say, graft it over to one that doesn’t! Even if the ants and earwigs didn’t get them they’d likely rot within a day or 2.
They are now in the fridge and will become a tart later!
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H-man, I don’t give up that easily. This was a very unusual downpour. So next year is another year and I am thrilled that I have enough to make a huge tart. 
Yum! Enjoy a piece for me.
Do you think it was just the stage of ripening/development when the overdose of rain occurred that made them split? After all, tomatoes crack when they get overwatered if it comes at the wrong stage of readiness. I still grow them. I wouldn’t think of getting rid of a tree with fruit that I really enjoyed just because they might crack if rain came in abundance at the wrong time. Now, if it were something that happened every year before they were usable, that would be a different story.
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It was just the rain and the development of that variety, as all of my other plums are fine. My cherry tomatoes cracked in the rain too. Thanks MM!
No, I don’t think you should for one bad grade anyway. But if it shows itself to be generally incapable to provide superior fruit with consistency, it is nice to know you can change it over fairly quickly.
Like most fruit growers, cannot wait until next year!
This is my photograph of my Mirabelles de Metz (still green, spotted and hard). I hid the bottoms (the exploded part, because I needed this shot for this weeks newspaper article. But. . . here they are.
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Those grenades blew up all right. That’s very disappointing. I hope your newspaper story is well received. Do you write a weekly column?
Yes, I do write a weekly column. The name of the paper is Newport this Week, and I am the Gardening Ed. Have been for many years. Yep they blew up, will still taste great in a tart though. Will shoot that tomorrow!
That’s the right spirit!! And I’ll bet you write a great column.
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Thanks fruitnut! Its fun and i love it. Wished you lived closer.
OMG, going to see if they have an online version, mrsg!
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They do!
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Well, I for one am grateful to read about this. For all my spectacular gardening failures, I’ve never had the compost heap spontaneously burst into flames and I’ve never had my crop actually explode.
People like us need to stay away from canning, growing mushrooms and other potentially lethal gardening activities.
I’ve had my manure pile spontaneously combust! 