Surprisingly they were better from the fridge. I just cut up the last ones this morning, they were harvested almost a month ago and were still very good. One downside is they were softer.
I have never put a peach in the fridge until this year when I had a ton of fruit ripen just before our summer vacation so I stuffed it in there. Normally I would dry it in that situation, but I picked it less than 12 hours before our departure so it was either fridge or freezer.
I am now harvesting Golden Transparent Gage, it has a really rich flavor and is a good complement to the French Prune as its a very different taste (prune vs caramel). Both GTG and French Prune are coming in at 25 brix now. It has been raining but that is not too far off where they are usually.
My experience this year too. I tried to suspend ripening but it seems to keep ripening in the fridge. I didn’t think it dehydrated with that thick peach skin and fuzz. I ate my up or processed to freezer now as I was worried they would rot, nice to know they lasted a month at least.
I believe all fruit has pores and dehydrates when conditions are right. I have left peaches in the fridge and forgotten them and can assure you that they will often shrink up without rotting. Gotta be the missing water. Perhaps you mean “dehydrated much”.
Right, and yeah i agree, it comes out all juicy so it’s hard to say dehydrated. I had peaches maybe firm ripe, and they kept ripening in the fridge, at least it appeared that way. Sure after a month they will dehydrate.
Anyway I thought they may get mealy, had that happen before, so confused as to exactly why these did not? Maybe if I left them longer, or the growing conditions? Not sure? I do know the fruit is good this year.
Someone asked me the other day what created a mealy peach and I couldn’t answer beyond “duh, I don’t know”. I had long thought that CA peaches became mealy when they get cooked by hot temps because they keep being grown further inland as land close to the coast is developed or used for the ever expanding vineyard business. Now we have a forum member who seems to harvest perfect peaches even after hot spells in the 100’s.
You got more good Laroda from that graft than I did from a whole tree. It set pretty heavily but even though I’ve been trapping pretty heavily this year, mine still started to disappear when they changed color. At that point (early August), they are starting to become edible, but far from heaven. Maybe 10-12 brix.
Lavina (right next to it) seemed a bit less prone to early snatching and I got some decently ripe ones (13-14 brix) which were tasty. It was also very productive, so I bet they would be better if I thinned it more.
I stored some Lavina in the fridge and almost a month later, they are still OK, but have lost a lot of flavor. Maybe the problem is that I stored them in zip lock freezer bags and it didn’t really allow for much dehydration.
Aside from those two and AU Rosa (similar result as Laroda), I got very few plums this year. The few Euros which set got devoured before I could pick a single one. The spring frost took out a lot of the others. Or at least knocked down the fruit-set to a point where there wasn’t more than a handful, most of which didn’t reach maturity.
I only sampled 1-2 damaged ones, which seemed OK, but nothing remarkable (hard to say with a tiny sliver of fruit…). I didn’t realize that it was getting high marks and will now look forward to better things from it next year.
Those look great Drew! When I first saw it, I thought they were Williams Pride apples for a second.
I should mention that a lot more of my apples are surviving to maturity. Maybe the animals have decided that they like stone fruit better It’s also possible that the timing of my spring sprays was better for apples, than it was for plums, so there are fewer lost of insects, which I think was a big factor on my Euro plums.
Reema seems as good in it’s own way as Laroda. first year it set fruit, but I have lots smaller branches spreading from well established branches on two separate trees, one in morning shade and Reema overset on all its branches. Just one season, but here a challenging one for some of my favorites- Satsuma and Ruby Queen barely set at all and Early Magic was light. Hope you have some French prune wood to trade me for some Reema. It is such a vigorous grower and I grafted it to a Shiro on Myro and a Stanley on myro. The Shiro is in almost full sun and I have a ton of wood on it.
Well they’re not, but when I compared them to the other plums, and not thinking giant cherry. It does not taste like a cherry. Although it doesn’t taste like a plum either. At least none I have had. I may change my mind when my palate is better educated. Again though comparing to other plums, it was better. Everything though is good this year, it’s just strange. Even Flavor Queen tasted decent, no wow, but I could easily eat them. Rather pleasant really.
I was listening to Don Shorr’s radio show out of Davis CA and he mentioned his favorite plum, never heard of it, and have now forgot it! I’m going to go back and listen again.
I want to add Howard’s Miracle and Hollywood. Looking for scion, I know HM is sold, so I can get that for sure.
I was going on taste reports I read. I have not had many rot problems.
I attack brown rot with two fungicides, they attack the fungus differently. I alternate them. I use two different insecticides. Old School Malathion, and Lambda-cyhalothrin. It is a pyrethroid, a class of man-made insecticides that mimic the structure and insecticidal properties of the naturally occurring insecticide pyrethrum which comes from the flowers of chrysanthemums. Synthetic pyrethroids, like lambda-cyhalothrin, are often preferred as an active ingredient in insecticides because they remain effective for longer periods of time.
Anyways they work well. I alternate the insecticides too. I also hit them with Captan. I try to be as careful as possible. I try too do my other fruit organically, I may change things up, just wanted to test how well the products work, they work very well.
Drew, remind me about Howard Miracle in winter and I will send you the wood. The few that I tasted were fantastic. I actually had many of them but one nasty possum climbed the tree and bit into the every fruit it could find even if they were not ripe and very sour at this stage. I guess it liked it too.
Yeah, I didn’t get as much rain as I expected. I was expecting at least 2" or more over the weekend with more coming midweek. I only have 0.75" so far. Still, it was enough to swell and split the skins on the remaining J plums I left on the tree. I’ve seen this before. A 1" rainfall after a long dry period of a month or more and the fruit will swell dramatically. I assume the E plums swelled too, but not enough to split skins. I will be drying most of the E plums anyhow, so no problem. However, a bigger concern is the cold temperatures and cloudy days over the last 2 weeks. This year is more typical of historical norm with overnight lows as low as upper 30’s daily highs in 60’s. I assume the sugar and flavor will take a hit.
It also is hard to tame the growth, it makes zillions of tiny shoots. Shekar Pareh is another tree that does it. Eventually you can get them in line but its bad for rot since the tree makes dense leaves to shade things.
Based on my first full season with Indar I think I can grow nearly any rotter with a regular synthetic spray. I am getting a bit of rot now on the later stone fruits, but the last spray (of any kind) I made was in late June. I never did a specific Indar spray, I just added it to the tank when doing e.g. Surround. Usually the earlier Euro plums are the worst for rot. This year the only ones rotting are the ones with bug or wasp damage.
Even though I can in theory grow the easy to rot fruits now I am not planning on re-adding them. There are enough great varieties out there, unless its really special like Indian Free I will pass.
It’s also possible that the timing of my spring sprays was better for apples, than it was for plums, so there are fewer lost of insects, which I think was a big factor on my Euro plums.
