Thank you. My tree no fruit yet but it’s brook gold. Interesting to wait and see. @ltilton
VK’s Umpqua Italian Plum. It was my great grandfather’s original - probably has some genetics included from his colleague Moyer whose plums he also grew. My topworked apricot has both on it.
I prefer VK’s Umpqua personally because of the flavor profile. Slightly less sweet, more acid with more depth to it. The Moyer is very sweet, sometimes too much so. Both are great as dried prunes as well.
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@scottfsmith
Is this Laroda?
It seems to fit the description on the Dave Wilson website.
Mine has not fully ripened yet. Firm flesh, sweet/tart. The graft is in a shady area. It does not get much sun. That probably would negatively affect the fruit quality.
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That looks just like my Laroda. They probably have another 3-4 weeks to go. The problem with the plum is they color up early and then all the animals go after them. I don’t get many to full ripeness.
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Thank you. It did not set a lot, unlike Lavina. The branch is low to the ground. Even bunnies can reach it. Hope they will left me a few.
good to know they don’t keep. I grafted them on last year and will keep that in mind when they come in
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Picture of a prune plum from a seedling tree that grew on my proprty:
The fruit is almost identical to all the old heritage prune plums that grew here in the past. The plums are your pretty standard tasting prune plums, nothing too impressive. The impressive thing was the tree itself, as the tree was growing amongst a solid stand of 50 - 60 foot fir trees in complete shade. I didn’t even realize it was a prune plum tree until the fruit started turning purple way at the top of the tree. I figured it was a cherry plum tree seedling until today.
I took my high reach extendable pruner and cut a few branches with plums on them from up near the top of the tree. I was surprised to find these branches were full of good tasting prune plums. The tree only receives a little bit of filtered sunlight through the solid wall of towereng fir trees. This tree was receiving no direct sunlight at all. I was surprised that some of the fruit was fully ripe with so little sun. Most of the fruit was probably a week to ten days from full ripeness, but they were still decent tasting fruit.
The tree was likely 30 - 40 years old and I’d never really even noticed it buried amongst the fir trees behind the barn. It was covered in moss, but had zero black knot on it. I figured if the tree had survived disease free and still producing fruit for that long it might be worth propagating it.
I promptly cut off some bud wood and chip budded it to some myrobalan root suckers growing in a more sunny location.
I figured this seedling variety deserved a little love after growing for so long Hidden amongst the much taller native trees. Hopefully the grafts will take as my sister ate about a dozen of the plums and really liked them.
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Standard (European standard, that is) prune plums taste excellent. 
Then there are the new post-pox breedings that are trying to measure up to the high standard, which is incidentally associated with wild growing prune plums. Small fruit, great flavour. Some of the Čačanska varieties come close, but Hauszwetsche (Domáca) is Hauszwetsche .
They have fortunately naturally developed a tolerance to pox and are very resilient. We have some volunteers growing right underneath walnuts and not on the sunny side either. It also seems that the do better without human care and attention.
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First plum ever! Been waiting for this day for a couple years.
Mirabelle de Metz - good sugar, skin was pretty tough.
Have a couple other Mirabelles on my multi graft tree that should be ready in a day or two.
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That looks way overripe to me, but perhaps you like your stone fruit softer than I do.
Yea I do tend to like it when they squirt everywhere when you take a bite.
Do some varieties develop tougher skin the longer they hang?
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probably, I would have pitched that mirabelle down the hillside.
When I pick my mirabelles, they require chewing and I don’t notice any extra effort for the skin. It doesn’t peal away from the flesh. I break them in half, sometimes after breaking the skin with my incisors, toss the pit, and eat the halves.
I don’t think I’ve seen a picture of Mirabelle de Metz with purple skin.
Yea certainly don’t look like any of the pics online…
My last big plum crop, French Prune. This tree is now pretty big and well above the deer so it’s giving me a decent crop. The only problem is the deer hang around below it for the drops and it’s a poop-fest there!
I still have a small graft of Emerald Beaut to go as well. They need to hang late to get good flavor.
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Will you have any wood from that tree I can get a stick of? I could give you a stick of President, another late prune-plum I just tasted from a nursery tree. It is tasty, huge and probably as reliable as Empress, another huge and reliable prune plum. .
There is an advantage to larger plums if you have to feel every single fruit in the tree to figure out which are at the perfect point of harvest. The alternative is to mow your grass high and shake the branches lightly.
I use plum or apricot sauce with sliced fruit and/or whole berries as part of my oatmeal or waffle breakfasts every morning of the year. Soon, both will be coming out of the freezer once the harvest is over and out of refrigeration.
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Scott,
Is French Prune the same as French Improved? My set abundantly but smaller in size than yours.
Sure Alan just PM me in the winter and I can send you some wood. This plum is super flavorful if you wait until they are softening. The tree is also very productive.
@mamuang it goes by many names, French Petite, Prune d’Agen, French Improved, etc (French Improved is supposedly slightly different, I forget how. Mine in fact was sold as French Improved and I think that is what most people in the US are growing).
I would not call these plums very big. I should have put a Valor in the picture so you could see how much smaller these guys are. Here is a quarter added:
Re: fruit in breakfast, I am now making a big batch of whole grained cereal every few weeks, and I throw in whatever fruit I happen to have. If I get too much fruit I will freeze or dry and that can go into the cereal in the winter months.
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The spouse likes to cut up the fresh plums with his oatmeal, while I like mine pruned. It’s a race to see who gets the really ripe ones first.