Maureen,
Have you check Scott Smith’s stone fruit report?
Scotts stone fruits variety experiences 2005-2015 - #4 by Bradybb.
Although Scott is in zone 7 Maryland, you may find his report worth reading.
I haven’t, but now I will. Thank you!
Scott is in the hotter and more humid area so he has more issue with diseases.
You are in a colder zone, maybe, a bit less humid. You may have less disease issue. Your issue may be the cold hardiness of the varieties you want to grow.
Hi! I live in zone 7a by the sea in RI. I have only Euro plums in my orchard. The mirabelles I have are all self fruitful, however, they do have better pollination if you have other Euro plums as well. I also have Italian, and Two different green gage Bavays. They take forever to produce fruit but once they do you will not be disappointed. Last summer was a total disaster for my entire orchard as we had a late spring frost and I lost 99 percent of my fruit. Sad. But that is nature, and it happens. Having to wait another whole year is killer, but there you have it. The old Reine Claude is my favorite Bavay, and very prone to Black Knot as are all of my Euro plums so spray accordingly and prune out the black know and destroy as soon as you find. it. Copper and fungicides work very well on Euros as does a good pesticide with a sticker. Good luck! Euro plums are much harder to grow in New England than Asian plums. I only wish I had also planted a Damson. . . . Next orchard!
Yes, well once you get to the northeast E. plums are not so difficult and often don’t require brown rot sprays- especially, as you suggest, when they are varieties that ripen in Sept.- Oct which is usually when Empress and Valor bear. They are more prone to plum curculio damage than J’s in a low spray program, but most years that just means a few less plums.
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Which Damson would you have chosen?
I’m going to try the Mirabelles and Green Gage. We’ll see how they fare for us.
I looked at Scott’s list and it is very well-documented info and well delivered. Helpful!
Thank you
If you ever want to grow apples, Scott has an apple report, too. Just use the search engine, a magnifying glass symbol on the top right corner of the page, to look for the report (or anything you want to read.
If you want a low impact spray, he has one posted, too. Just check Reference section for it.
Maureen,
You said “I didn’t know how to open your PM to me. Still trying to figure that out. Sorry to be such a dunce, but I’m brand new to this forum.” Don’t worry, it took me six months to figure out. Some people who PM me and did not get any answer must have thought I was rude and ignored them.
If you have not figured it out, I’d like to share the how with you.
Please check the top right corner of a page, you’ll see your handle (an M in a circle) there. At the handle, if you see a small green dot, it means you have a private message. You just click on the dot, it’ll lead to the message.
When you see a light blue dot, it means someone respond/refer to your post on a thread.
Also, if you want to private message anyone, you just click on his/her handle, his/her page will show up. You’ll see the word Message with an envelope symbol. Click on it. That’s how you private message that person.
Hope this help.
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I have much more fog and humidity than does Alan, as I live a two blocks from the Sea. If I didn’t spray for brown rot I wouldn’t have any plums at all. And my Italian plums and mirabelles don’t start coming in until Sept. - Oct. Everything seems to be late here, except for Pristine Apples! The Damson I would have chosen is Merryweather, but I would have settled for good old Blue Damson. Where in Maine are you, I used to live there (hope you do not have many deer in your area.
Thank you for the very specific and well-described instructions! Very helpful!
That’s wonderful as I was actually just going over our apple list to see if there were any I should add. (We try to do everything organically, although we’ve been discouraged by others from doing this with apples, but we’ll try anyway.)
Apples esp. Disease resistant varieties are easy to grow without pesticide spray. Whoever told you otherwise, has not read this forum 
We live in Scarborough, but are on the wooded side, not the direct oceanside. We do have deer in our backyard, and wild turkeys (as many as 44 at one time) and foxes and coyotes. Lots of security for our rare breed poultry on our 5 and 3/4 acres. I have to be careful what I choose for orchard trees as we only have about 3 acres of our acreage that is not forested. Some of that we want to keep as large open lawns. so it’s hard to find just the right sunny space to squeeze in everything that we’d like. 
So nice that you are just 2 blocks from the sea.
Does Merryweather taste better than Bue Damson?
I don’t know, I was taking the recommendation from British friends. Damsons are just plain good! I was in York Harbor, and Dark Harbor!
Actually, it was a local farm/nursery that told me that and scolded me for wanting to do that. He said he had started that way and found out it wasn’t possible because of scab and other diseases and wanted to know what I was going to do about that. I didn’t have a good answer yet.
But, we joined the local organic society and were promised a visit by the orchardist, so I’m hoping for good instructions. What are the disease resistant varieties that you’ve had luck with? Do you grow organically?
Two very different parts of the state. Which one was your favorite?
Liked them both for different reasons. We had family there too (all summer). Tried growing fruit trees in YH, but too many deer. The season for me in Dark Harbor was short as I’d only go up to the house for about a month a summer. Yes, I did write it out at one point, but I don’t I don’t know where it is. Lets PM these instead, as they are personal. OK?
MrsG are you the one with the delicious plum jam recipe? If so could you re-publish it here for me? I’d like to try it!
MrsG,
Was there any success with those Blue Damson scions that I sent awhile back?I can probably send a few more,if wanted.Brady