Slovakia, Central Europe. Which is a problem, because President seems to be susceptible to sharka and we have an endemic strain in my area. Bluebell (Stanley x President) looks promissing, or I’ll have to look for something like Valjevka or some of the newer German varieties like Toptaste while avoiding hypersensitive ones - I have one that is free of sharka, but a very poor bearer most years.
If this was a normal year (spring was too early+extremely hot summer), we’d still have at least some wild prune plums, but why have 4 weeks of plums, if you can add 3 more?
Somehow, I got you confused with someone else. Your written English is superb.
My plum season started in early July with the only plum-cot cross I’ve ever eaten where the apricot in it is identifiable to my palate and eyes- Spring Satin. The last of my Empress plums will be ripe within a week- other years they can last into Oct. Plums can last up to two months in the fridge, though. I keep mine just on the cusp of freezing which helps fruit last longer- at least most varieties.
Sounds like you need to turn that to your advantage then. Put the wasp traps with the meat inside a racoon trap. Once you’ve trapped a coon in there, just leave it inside until the wasps sting it to death. Win, win.
My plums are mostly on myrobalan, but here’s a paper I came across this summer when pondering what to do with all the prunus seedlings (including from Hollywood) that pop up everywhere in our food forest and orchard.
My latest and the last plums of the year. Picked on 10/5. Large, meaty, sweet. Brix at 26. It could have been sweet if my area was warmer and sunnier, I believe.
Ha, ha, ha. Patience is not my virtue. I think I can pick Empress by the end of Sept but I kept forgetting. The tree has not grown the way I planned after my best attempt to shape the tree!!
The flesh in my empress plums tends to deteriorate before reaching full sweetness so I need to pick them as soon as the flesh gives a bit. I harvested the last of mine over a week ago. A few reached the 20’s but I believe most didn’t. It doesn’t matter too much because I mostly use my Euro’s for sauce. The ones I eat fresh are mostly right off the trees. I prefer getting my fresh fruit that way- seems to taste better plucked off the tree while warmed by the sun.
I get higher brix from my Valor plums, but it isn’t as late. I tasted my first President plum from a nursery tree about a week ago. Very high brix and perfect texture, but it was just a single plum on a young tree. Nevertheless, I will graft it onto an existing tree in my orchard.
Empress and Vision, 28 & 22 brix respectively. Both picked on Oct 6. I still have half my crop of each on the tree. Both very good plums, with slightly different flavor. The discoloration in the Empress is not rot, but rather seems to be some damage from the split pit. I ate all of it and there was no off taste.
The last of my Flavor King (cut ones) and Flavor Finale. Flavor King last pick was Sep 23, flavor faded a bit, but still excellent, Flavor Finale picked on Sep 30, excellent sweet tart flavor and very juicy. Flavor Finale had almost zero cracking, while most of my other plum varieties had various degrees of cracking. Does not store as long as other pluots, seems to relatively quickly goes to juice sacks. Seems to be a good candidate for north east/ mid Atlantic.
Yeah, even though I didn’t think it was a good replacement to apple juice in the past, because you recommended it I tried it again and putting slightly over-ripe fruit in my traps did seem to extend and increase the attraction when compared directly to traps nearby where I didn’t add such fruit.
The citric acid I added to begin with greatly extended that effectiveness of the traps as there is a point where the bug stew becomes too disgusting for anything but flies and what I call beetles of death.
Thanks for the tip, it saved me from buying more apple juice concentrate.
Oh, and I have long added dish soap with the citric acid. It takes a lot of traps to control yellow jackets so when you reuse traps it requires a lot of cleaning.
Picked my Dapple Dandy yesterday (Oct 10). If you are picking it early and not getting the color below, you will not be getting the full flavor and sweetness, it is very good to excellent plum. The other plum in the photo is Empress, picked the same day.
I gave up on Coe’s. Have had it fruited for 4-5 years. Only one year that it could ripen fully and was tasty. The other years, they did not fully ripened including this year. Often fruit turned soft while still green (not turning yellow). Then, they dropped. Those fruit tasted bland.
Fruit drops before ripening is another annoying issue with Coe’s growing here.
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