@JimTauber
Welcome to GrowingFruit!
Our Flavor Grenades are also ripening now. Are using a manual or digital Brix meter?
1 Like
Good description of Beauty. I will eat at most 2 or 3 pieces out of hundreds, always hoping it will be better than it turns out.
Makes great jam, even better mixed with peach. I want to try juicing it.
1 Like
Absolutely!
Richard, do you usually test plums or pluots for brix? I would thought it would have been higher but that may be because I’ve only tested grapes
My testing is sparse.
Grew beauty many years in Houston. I preferred them yellow with red blush. They were very sweet and crisp with nice acid at that stage. When fully ripe they would be red bags of sweet plum juice. All my Houston trees grew in sandy loam and most everything was sweet dependent on rootstock. Think climate and soil provide great variance in plant sweetness.
3 Likes
When you say sweet, do you mean it has more than average amount of sugar, or something else about its flavor? Mine are low brix and the skin is very sour. It’s hard for me to think of something under 15 brix in a plum as sweet, especially when it so unbalanced.
1 Like
I just measured a couple plums I have now… Flavor King is 21, and Bavays GG is 29. Both are awesome tasting. The Bavays mostly cracked but still taste great. This is my first FK harvest in a long time and I remember why I liked it so much. They cracked a bit but not too bad.
The Green Gages this year are not as good as the Bavays… they are far too soft. The taste is good though, more sour than the Bavays.
4 Likes
Last comment about Beauty plum. It is very sweet in Houston when ripe. As stated I preferred them yellow with red blush. A low chill fruit in Houston will always be sweeter than the same grown in the midwest let alone as far north as you are. As an example I grew Natchez blackberry many years in Houston. Most berries were always at least 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. Very sweet and juicy. I have read reviews of northern growers with opposite results. Couldn’t believe they were growing natchez. I have grown natchez 2 years at a vacation home in true zone 8, 30 miles south of zone 7 line. My natchez here are about a third as large as Houston and not sweet. I let the birds eat them. Totally different berry. Only fruit here thats as good as houston are my pluots. Most of my other cultivars will not bear fruit here. Too cold and not enough sun light.
1 Like
I like the greengages when they are just a little on the firm side and about 22 brix. They have a little bit of juice and tartness at that point.
2 Likes
Cool. I’d love to try a Beauty plum as you describe liking yours in Houston. I’ll assume then that the brix is 18+ that you are getting and is very different than what I get here.
But no amount or degree of delicious fruit would make it worth living in Houston climate for me 
2 Likes