It is so nice to get unbiased, first hand comparisons of different varieties! This kind of honest appraisal is so difficult to get elsewhere. Seems like nursery descriptions are all designed to sell you something. On this site, people are honestly trying to help one another. How cool is that!
Stan, you are definitely the Apricot King. Thanks so much for sharing!
The apricot season is winding down, tomorrow I will likely pick the last few fruits still on the trees. Some notes on late season varieties.
Moorpark harvest was great this year. Here’s a photo from a few days ago, I picked as many for several days in a row, and overall the harvest lasted for about 15 days.
Also, I had one and only fruit from a last year’s Germab-5 graft. Ate it too fast to make a photo. A truly outstanding flavor! I hope to have many more of these in the years to come.
Have been eating Bavay plums since yesterday. I can’t believe they ripened this early! Just in time at the end of the apricot season. It will be a good harvest of gage plums this year.
I understand that early/late springs and such can cause fruits to ripen earlier or later than they should, but is it possible wonky weather can cause specific varieties to not ripen in the order they normally should? Like some of my other plums are ripening before my earliest varieties, etc.
There is a typical order of ripening but variations and exceptions always happen. I notice that some varieties or some trees always ripen on approximately the same day every year while others are strongly affected by events of that particular season and their ripening days vary widely. This creates changes in the general order.
Comparing Bavay (on the left in all photos) and Old Green Gage (the classic Reine Claude, on the right in all photos). Differences in color are very subtle and vary with lighting and the degree of ripeness (one of the two Bavays is a bit more ripe than the other). Brix values vary from about 25 to about 30, depending on how ripe a particular specimen is, but on average Old Green Gage has a bit more of both sweetness and acidity.
Harvest of Gage (Reine Claude) plums is peaking up. I have been harvesting about a gallon every morning for the last few days. Mostly Bavay, Golden Transparent Gage, and Purple Gage, with a little bit from Old Green Gage, Gras Romanesc, and Reine des Mirabelles.