Like Murky, i have had great fruit set in my plums. I had to thin the Methleys viciously. I have about 600 of them on the ground so far, with more to come. I would’ve broken many branches. I biocharred them for the first time last year.
John S
PDX OR
At the end of march I grafted scions of a large berried variety from Hatsune (miku) and now they look like a success. So regrafting undesirable bushes is also a possibility
They do take a long time. I would mulch them and I biochar mine.
John S
PDX OR
I did a decent job of thinning most of my stone fruit, but Nadia was the afterthought. I usually run out of steam after thinning 100 or so developing plums. This tree still has maybe 1000 too many fruit on it. It’s more obvious now that they are starting to turn color. This is the heaviest set its had.
Yesterday a fearless deer was eating unripe thinned fruit from underneath, about 20 feet away from me. It was kind of choosy about which to eat, I’m not sure the criteria:
I have been eating the Methley plums for a few days now. They are early but small. I thinned probably 1400 plums that would have broken branches. I brought some to give to the poor people at church. Tomorrow, I’m going to bring some to our 4th of July baseball game. It will be among the most nutritious things these fellow baseball players eat all week. And they taste good. Shiro, Howard Miracle, and Santa Rosa aren’t ready yet.
John S
PDX OR
Anyone else getting hit super hard with SWD already? Last 2 years, they didn’t show up until about late August/September but now they’re in full force. Only 1/5 of my raspberries seem marketable right now and it’s driving me insane
SWD fruit flies were declining in this area (Vancouver, BC) for a few years until this year. Now, they’re as bad as ever. Raspberries have to be picked before they are fully ripe, or else they turn to watery mush. I’m still picking and freezing them, but I know that they all have SWD larvae in them. It least the maggots are so small that I never actually see them, and they don’t affect the taste of the berries.
Both sweet and sour cherries were badly affected, but blueberries seem to be OK for now. They don’t seem to bother the strawberries.
I’m always a little behind you. AU Producer is getting close. Beauty is starting to change color. Nadia is getting color too, as seen above.
I do scarlet runner beans they over winter every yr, the bean its self grows into a rootball and they are DELISH.
i didn’t have them 2 years ago but now i do and it’s bugging the hell out of me. i feel like they make everything unmarketable
This year I’ve gotten to try my first ripe Flavor Supreme pluots. I’m happy to have them, maybe 7 or so in total:
How the taste? Compare with some local stone fruit? Jafar.
I really enjoyed them. The flavor isn’t incredible, but it is good and it had plenty of sugar. I liked it better than the AU Producer, Shiro, big red Japanese plum that was supposed to be Yakima, and Nadia. Plus its ripe well before my other pluots.
I like that it still tastes good and has a good texture even when soft and juicy, perhaps some apricot genes manifesting. It’s cling stone though and there is a little bit of sourness near the pit, but not a lot.
If it produced regularly I’d highly recommend it. Hopefully now that its produced once it will keep doing it, but more likely it was just freak weather this past winter/spring and it will just make fruit once a decade 
I also have a number of Santa Rosa on a small limb that has only produced a few fruit in the past 10 years.
My Emerald Drop is loaded. It’s a good year for stone fruit for me. My coworker 20 miles away says he hardly got anything, even with some of the same varieties. Weather is tricky.
I only got to sample a very limited number last year (none this year), but I thought it was great. If I could get it producing on a regular basis, I’d be grafting a bunch more Flavor Supreme.
What are your favorite varieties of plum and plum crosses like pluot, pluerry, etc.?
My current favorites are Santa Rosa and Howard Miracle, which almost tastes like a nectarine, but is easier to grow.
John S
PDX OR
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This is how I’m feeling today. Last year the splash were bland for the first time. This is my first year with Opal
Best: Green Gage, Splash, Flavor Grenade, Howard Miracle, Flavor Supreme
Very Good: Geopride, Mirabelles, maybe Emerald Drop (haven’t had many ripe ones)
Better than Grocery store: Opal, Au Producer, Shiro, Beauty (can be a step higher or lower)
Good: Hollywood (only a couple of years, maybe should be higher), Nadia
Meh: Santa Rosa, Japanese plum that was supposed to be Yakima
Most productive are Nadia, Shiro, AU Producer
I agree with many of @murky ‘s assessments as well as I’d add the following to my top favs list, (in order of preference):
Elephant heart
Flavor supreme
Favor king
Purple heart
Black ice
Black amber
