Stan’s harvest diary 2021

mamuang,
Those leaves look like Asian Plum,to me.

The fruit looked like Asian plums, too. Unfortunately, I’ve go several mislabeled varieties from trades and from at least one nursery.

Come to think of it, sometimes, the mistakes started from the nurseries sending mislabeled trees to owners who have kindly shared scionwood with others thinking it’s true to labels.

This forum has helped many people including me correctly identify our fruit varieties.

I hope it wasn’t from me.They look like nice Plums,though.

I agree, this looks like an Asian plum or a pluot.

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Thanks, @Bradybb and @Stan . It could have been that I mixed it up during grafting and mislabeled it. Hope it will have good flavor.

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I think that wood came from me. My tree came from Trees of Antiquity in 2016, but I’ve never gotten fruit from it. It has been badly affected by black knot and I may end up removing it after this year.

I passed by yesterday and saw one yellow fruit on it. I’ll take a closer look, but I think it was similar to Mamuang’s pic.

Jefferson has always been the first Euro (?) to bloom for me. I think I remember someone else saying they had the same thing happen for them, so I didn’t worry too much about it. But, maybe it was first because it was really an Asian plum in disguise.

I noted the order here. Also of interest is that Keeper’s Nursery (UK) puts Jefferson’s bloom very early.

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Bob,
I found this on Orangepippin. Jefferson is considered a gage-like plum, not a real gage.
Gage - Jefferson - tasting notes, identification, reviews.

This year, we have had a lot of rain, maybe, my Jefferson just got fat and lost some of the classic gaga-like shape :joy:

I hope you will pose the pic of your one Jefferson so we can compare.

My Jefferson tree was from Trees of Antiquity also. It is a very early bloomer for a euro, but always has some straggler blooms later, so I usually get a few. It doesn’t look dense like @Stan 's does. It is juicier than other gages, a little bigger, somewhat sweet and refreshing, but mine didn’t have a ton of flavor like other gages. I think mine is some type of euro/gage but not the best. It is OK, though. Stan’s is different, and looks better.

https://www.growingfruit.org/t/what-fruits-did-you-eat-today/5021/1587?u=ztom

It is too hot during the day here so I took some photos of Jefferson plum at night:

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This statement is meaningless in my opinion. What’s “a real gage” and how it’s different from a “gage-like”? Jefferson is definitely of the Gage (Reine Claude) type. It is very similar in all aspects to other gage plums such as Golden Transparent Gage, Washington, and Coe’s Golden Drop.

Here’s a color plate of Jefferson from Hedrick’s "“The Plums of New York”.

I know for a fact that L.E. Cook sold for many years a “Jefferson” plum that was in fact a green-skinned Asian plum. I don’t think it’s implausible that Trees of Antiquity used that L.E. Cook’s variety as a source for their “Jefferson” as well. This not the first time that I read about a “Jefferson” plum acquired from Trees of Antiquity whose description is strangely similar to what should be an Asian plum.

BTW, all description that I read of those L.E. Cook and Trees of Antiquity “Jeffersons” mentioned that the fruit is very acidic with a subpar flavor.

The plum on your photo that you linked does not look like Jefferson to me. Asian and Euro plums can be easily distinguished by their leaves and buds, so I don’t think this mystery is too difficult to sort out.

Your Jefferson definitely looks like Coe’s Golden Drop’s brother, just like the description of it.

Mine will be something I look forward to see how they will turn out.

Thank you, Stan.

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I took a closer look today. The tree has 4 fruit, 3 of which were in a cluster:

Note all the black knot…ugh.

One of them was actually ripe:

It had a brown section inside, so maybe it was damaged a bit. It was very juicy and leaked all over when I cut it open. 11 brix and not all that much flavor.

I wouldn’t want to decide on a fruit based on a single sample. But, the combination of:
1.) Bad sample
2.) Others reporting it may not be that good
3.) poor fruit set
4.) Massive black knot infection
5.) Location which has become more problematic due to maple to the South. It was going to get better again last fall when the neighbors let me remove trees which were growing up along border, but then another neighbor complained when the tree cutters were about to do the last one, so I have a single maple bent (due to where the other trees used to be) over the plum to it’s South…). I should just cut it down and leave the blackberries (you can see a few in the 2nd pic) here.

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Bob,
Thank for the pic and your assessment. They looked like mine. The only difference is that mine set very well. That graft is on a mirabelle tree that has several other Euro and Asian plums on it. Something helped pollinate it well.

This mirabelle plum has more and more black knot as the tree ages. I have not seen it on this “Jefferson” branch but it is only a matter of time.

Fig season (main crop) has started in earnest, I picked about two gallons today. Expect this to last through early September.

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Wow- main crop?? I just started brebas. This is the first time I’ve gotten brebas, so I’m not sure if they will continue until the main crop starts in September of if I can just expect a week or two of them followed by a month long gap.

Are those soft ripe? I don’t think I could stack figs that way without the ones at the bottom turning into a paste.

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This year, brebas started in late May (see this post above) and lasted until early July. The gap between breba and main crop for any single variety is about four-five weeks, but since I have multiple varieties with different ripening times, the overall gap was shorter, something like two-tree weeks.

The figs are soft ripe but most not to the point of being completely falling apart.

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@Stan, nice looking figs, quite an abundance!! If you can let them ripen a few more days they will be even better. I know it is hard to pic at perfect ripeness, but the flavor can double up on the perfectly ripened ones. This is how we prefer them here…

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Those leaves look like asian plum leaves to me. Also “juicy” is uncommon in Euro plums.

I had a Jefferson I got from Botner many years ago, but it never fruited. I am pretty sure it was a Euro from the leaves though.

It is amazing how many plum mis-IDs there are out there. Nurseries seem happy to just send any old plum tree.

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