Anyone have a range of Brix levels they’ve attained for the following plums?:
-Mirabelle
-Italian prune plum
-redheart
Brix can easily vary 10-15 points location to location.
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@Stan good to know they could vary that much. It would still be useful to know the potential and hopefully see someone report near my location in vancouver area canada.
If you have dry weather during harvest and the few preceding weeks, the first two can easily have a brix above 20. I don’t know the third variety.
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Sorry, I’ve never used a brix meter before. I am fairly close to your location though, although I am in the Gulf Islands.
I planted a redheart quite a few years back and I’ve never gotten good production off of it. This may be because it is in a low elevation by the water that is too cool and windy, or it may be because neighbors trees have blocked much of its sun exposure. It may also simply be because I don’t have a good pollination partner for it close by.
How is the cropping on your redheart, and what do you use for a pollination partner? I don’t believe the European Plums you listed are compatible pollinators for the Redheart which is a Japanese or jap/hybrid.
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@tbg9b I currently only have mirabelle grafted and that’s on a satsuma rootstock-- so far it looks quite strong but time will tell how far it’ll go.
That said, i didn’t have a brix meter at the time I tasted them so i was wondering what they might’ve been and use that info to establish a realistic expectation/benchmark for other varieties I’m looking into grafting to our juvenile tree.
The Italian prune plum was what I’d consider borderline “too sweet” so if i come across other varieties that are significantly higher Brix, i’ll probably put em lower priority.
I am in zone 6 New England when rain is common. I have mirabelle de Nancy and Parfume de Septembre. The last brix recorded was 20. These mirabelles do not have acidity in them so 20 is plenty sweet.
Like most fruit, when there is a stretch of sunny days to help mirabelles ripen and follow by rain, fruit crack. Last year more than 50% of my mirabelles cracked.
Also, the tree gets black knot and the situation gets worse each year.
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@mamuang i know each person has their own preferences but with plums, what Brix is “cloying” to you? I actually only suspect our old neighbors plum was a mirabelle just based on photos and taste. They were sweet but very pleasant and i don’t recall them being cloying. The sweet Italian prune plums i had last year, on the other hand, were quite close to cloying…almost like pure honey.
I also just remembered having president plums last year that were definitely cloying… Reminded me of farm-cultivated durians that were overdosed with potash. Just wasn’t for me.
I equate cloying to “saccharine sweet”. To me, mirabelle is sweet in a pleasant way, not saccharine sweet.
@mrsg47 is the go-to person to ask to describe mirabelles’ taste. She is a writer and a chef.
By the way, all my friends and neighbors who tried my mirabelles love them. These are general public, not sophisticated fruit connoisseurs.
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