Hi everyone, We planted a superior plum here just north of Taos with the understanding that they produced a nice fruit. Our tree is beautiful and bountiful. It is growing enormous in just a few years, and has been so fun to watch. However, this year we got our first real harvest, and the plums, fully red and ripe, were really sour. Anyone else have this problem???thanks Peggy
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Positive it’s a “Superior”? That’s one of the best flavored plums I’ve eaten, very ripe, had peach-like overtones.
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Well – I am positive that the tree was labeled superior. Could have been mislabeled. These are certainly not anything like a peach. You really can’t eat them without smothering them in sugar…
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That’s what I’d be suspecting, a mislabeled tree. Box stores are notorious for bad labels if that’s where it came from.
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I think I’ve had Superior and wasn’t impressed. It could also be growing conditions. Too much water and not enough heat would make the fruit less sweet and thus more sour tasting.
Also fully red might not be ripe. If still hard then they’re not ripe.
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Not sugar, a little salt. The traditional way people eat sour plums.
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I agree that the plum taste has peach/nectarine flavors but the skin is still very sour even when fully ripe. The pit is also clingstone and the flesh is orange/amber in color and very juicy and soft textured. The shape is what I would describe as a pointed heart and the color is red with orange undertones. If that doesn’t sound like yours then I would guess your plum was mislabeled.
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Hi Fruitnut, Well, we did have a lot of irrigation water this summer. I could try to control that better next year to this tree. We also had a warm summer, so that was not the problem, I don’t think. Although our nights are coolish here at 7600 feet in the desert.
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I will try that, using salt, not sugar. Have to be next year - we made all of the remainder of the harvest into jam yesterday…
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Roth - that is exactly what our plum looks and tastes like. The flesh is sweet enough, but it is hard to not notice the sour skin. Clingstone, heart shaped, orange flesh, and the color is dark red, more orange before it is ripe… So I think that I have a superior. It is also a very vigorous grower.
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Sounds like superior. I have been spoiled by pluots. They often do not have sour skin. And the brix seems way higher than most plums. I also was not impressed with superior. About the only plum I like is Santa Rosa.
I had a good crop of Emerald Drop pluots this year and my wife didn’t like them because they were too sweet. Which is ironic as my wife usually only eats sweet fruit. The yellow translucent flesh has tropical tones. I liked it myself.
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Well - we used the fruit that was left yesterday, as it was falling off of the tree. Definately as ripe as they were going to get. Some getting too soft. We usually make low sugar jam with our peaches, but had to use a full cup of sugar per pint here, and it is still tart. But full of flavor!!! We can do a little tart with the flavor…
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Nice work!
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