I wonder if you’ve had truly tree ripened E. plums. Most are capable of achieving significantly higher brix here than J’s. A really good Elephant heart might get as high as 17 but prune-plums and gages can get to almost 25% sugar.
This all makes them much more useful in the kitchen, IMO.
Yes, true, it’s more I prefer acidic fruit to work with. Often the acid hides flavor,. I prefer a balanced fruit although too acidic can be adjusted with the sweetener of your choice.
Gages look interesting and I would like to add some, somehow. Recently my daughter bought a lot and I maintain it, a canal lot, I added hazelnuts and Jujubes. I need fruit or nuts that require no attention (E plums are out) as often it may be two weeks before I can get there. Hickory, and mulberry were added also. I still need to graft unto the mulberry rootstock. I will next year. Going with Oscar and as an experiment a newly discovered line of cold hardy Morus nigra (Tsarigradska mulberry seedling from Vratsa Bulgaria zone 6). If it fails, I will add another mulberry. I have Wellington, and others to choose from. The rootstock has multiple branches.
Like most people in the north east quadrant of the country, we had a lot of rain this summer, especially the first half. My Green Gages still got to to 22 brix regularly and had no cracking. Indar kept the rot away. They didn’t set heavily compared to Rosy Gage and Castleton, which were all touching each other in bunches, but I still got a few dozen for the first time. Even though Rosy Gage set heavy, the fruits were nearly twice the size of the Green Gages. I don’t think the size of Green Gage was affected by all the rain, which is a good thing.
How often did you spray Indar this year? I sprayed 3-4 times. Still some rot, more on J than E plum.
How do you like Castleton?
I measured some of my Bavay Green Gage recently, the Brix was between 28 and 29… pretty amazing! The Reine des Mirabelles are usually similar sweetness but this year the birds got all of them.
Turned out I have 3 Bavay grafts. I hope at least one of them is a correct variety.
Euros are quite acid until they are somewhat soft on the tree (with at least one exception in Autumn Sweet), but if you want a very reliable and heavy cropper of mouth puckering fruit for culinary purposed, try Damson- there is inadequate justice in my description.
The only problem is that they are small. The trees are stunning when strung with fruit that form in massive clusters all along the branches. I’ll try to get some photos this season.
[quote=“mamuang, post:24, topic:23732”]
Still some rot, more on J than E plum.
When the seeds split the rot cannot be controlled externally for a lot of the fruit. Maybe that is the problem, but you probably would have noticed it if it was.
Terrible year for nectarine yield because of rot coming from split pits and other damage from spring rain. Glad I’m not selling them to make my mortgage- plenty for my freezer and eating, but my friends will have to settle for peaches.
First year in a while that I have peaches sweet enough to be proud of- FINALLY. Drought came at a very good time. Hope someone turns on the sky spigot in the next month or two. For now- let it shine.
Well I guess I need to add some!
I had a lot of split pit too, rot was minimal though. I could salvage part of the plums that had it. The robins pecked some of my fruit including peaches. But last week they were gone, just left!!?? At my cottage too 35 miles away NE direction. I’m grateful as they do the most damage, many other birds like cardinals once you spook them, they stay away. Four robins this year got caught in my nets and died. My dog keeps them out and is now bored since they left. He is so smart, knows the Robin calls and has caught them off guard. Those birds are pushing daisies now. I love herding dogs as they like to work, they are happiest working! I bred him (stud service) this year and will have his son to train come October. Well my wife wants to make him a rescue dog. She is looking for something to do once retired. My wife loves to work too, and I can’t get her to retire. At least this new dog may help!
Re. Nectarines, so true about rot. I have 59-60% rot, mostly at the top where the stem held tightly to branches. It was not possible for fungicide to cover that area well. Had we not had mini drought this past month, the % of rot would have been a lot higher.
Re. Setting fruit abundantly, Opal and mirabelles fit the description, too.
Somehow, I have had almost no split oit on any plumsor nectarines. Not even a single Glenglo that looked like it should have but did not.
All are peaches do not ripen yet.
I sprayed about 4 times with Indar, but also with Immunox early and inbetween when it was really rainy. My Castletons have been dark purple for a few weeks but are still hard. I picked a dozen yesterday before the rain, hopefully they soften up in a few days.
Purple color plums can fool us.
Castleton turns purple for weeks before ripens. I picked mine mid Sept last year. Things seem to be at least a week later this year. I will wait until the first few drop and taste them before harvesting.
Castleton is Sept? That’s sounds suspicious. They begin to ripen mid-Aug here and are almost done.
Alan,
You have been suspicious of my Castleton every year. 
I believe mine is real. You think my Valor is not the old Valor, too.
Alan,
Could you please pics of your Castleton, both whole fruit and cut up, please?
I’d like to compare ny plums to Castleton from you and from anyone else that have real Castleton.
I don’t pay much attention to our ripening time differences because micro climate could play a role in it.
My Glenglo peach this year ripened 3 weeks later than when it should have been.
How is rosy gage compared to green gage? I’m contemplating adding rosy or purple gage but cannot find much info about their characteristics.
I manage a hundred orchards in my region and ripening times vary by not more than a few days unless trees are in a lot of shade. Year to year there is a great deal of variation, but not on a given year. The caveat to this is orchards with full coastal influence. Because I’m not at the couple of sites I manage with this location enough during harvest season, I’m sketchy on its affect on ripening times, but it seems to delay things that ripen late.
Adam’s ripening chart (not always accurate with plums, especially E. plums) has Castleton ripening with Santa Rosa, although for me SR precedes it. But it is with earlier plums, including Satsuma.
I believe their list is based on commercial harvest times, though, and we all know that commercial growers tend to harvest plums when they aren’t worth eating. Nevertheless, they place Castleton well before Stanley.
They put Green Gage before Castleton, BTW. I find it ripens a few days later than Castle here.
My set up doesn’t allow easy transfer of photos from my phone to computer for some reason. I’ve stressed my wife out a good deal to supply the few photos I’ve provided here, so none of castelton will be forthcoming, but they just look like a typical prune-plum and don’t get as big as true Valor (they are the same size as fake Valor from Adams but not as perfectly round. Fake Valor is the roundest E. plum I grow. )
If you grew trees instead of grafts, Castleton would be obvious because of its horizontal and dwarf growth habit compared to most other plums.
By the way, I just measured a Green Gage plum from a tree I planted for a client about 20 years ago. I’m not sure how heavy the crop was but if not much has been removed I’d say it’s a moderate crop.
Dawn to dusk sun and dead ripe, the plum reached only 17 brix. I’ve eaten quite a few from the tree and the range between fruit in terms of sweetness seems negligible- the tree is pruned open enough to bring light near all of its fruit.
I really think we jump the gun sometimes on measurements and that a tree only reveals it’s true character when it reaches full maturity and full crop. Access to water is partially based on the extent of the root system as well as the nature of the soil.
On full drought years this tree has produced sweeter fruit, but the soil is a deep clay loam and there is only frequently mowed sod to compete for water- right up to the trunk. Great soil for commercial corn production. The area used to be nothing but dairy farms.
AAlan,
Some Castleton started dropping today. Do they look like Castleton to you?
I have a tree but I prune it to open center and bent branches so the tree is not tall. It is open and weeping.
You don’t need to upload pics from your smart phone to your computer. You can post your pics from your phone.
That is exactly what mine look like. Mine are still firm but measure 20 brix.
I have not picked mine. Those were the ones that dropped. They mostly soft and had that jammy taste to it. I tried to measure brix but I could not squeeze juice out. It’s soft but similar to fig that I just could not get juice to drop on a refractometer.
I was impatient so I ate them 
I love prune plums. I grew up eating prunes and still love them.
