Grow Your Own Magazine

There are about 100 pounds here, half the tree!

We don't grow plums but loads of people that do round here have been getting bumper crops - have been trading them for our cucumbers!

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I have one plum tree and 5 damson trees....strangly the side of the plum tree near to the path had no plums on it the oher side had masses.

The Damsons have been great. Big and loads of them.

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We have a Damson hedge on the front of the garden and a copse of Damson trees at the back. We normally weight the crop in cwts. They are going to be early this year,which is a problem as we usually dispose of them to gardening friends at the first club meeting in mid September.
We also have a Wild plum hedge and there are greengages in it too. All have cropped well this year.

Wonderful pics!

I planted a plum and a golden gage tree this year, no fruit on either. How old do they have to be before they fruit? Each tree is around 5 foot tall.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

what is the difference between a wild plum, a bullace and a damson....
can any one help please?

With any luck Shirl, you should get some fruit next year, dpending on the weather, the bees and anything else which affects fruitng.
Headfry, that is a very hard question to answer. OUR wild plums are as close to a cultivated variety as you can get. They are only wild because they are part of the hedge rather than planted. Damsons are a small dark purple variety of plum. Bullace are slightly larger than a sloe and often bitter fruit .
Bullace is Prunus communis, var. Insitita. Damson is the same name.
They are all crosses from Blackthorn (Sloe) and Cherry Plum,Prunus cerasifera.

Hi Headfry, we have all three in our garden. The damsons are the smallest and quite tart unless very ripe. The bullaces (Denbigh plums or damsones) are almost as sweet as plums but smaller. I've just realised you said 'wild' plums, we ain't got them so I can't describe them!

Pulustris, all those Victoria plums look very green. Is this the time to harvest them? I usually wait until they darken?

Trick of the camera, but they are not fully ripe. We had no choice really as the branches had cracked under the weight. We usually pick them as soon as they begin to change colour and they have always ripened off nicely in storage. It also stops the birds, wasps etc. and reduces the attack of brown rot.

Instead of ripening this year as usual,they are just going a rotton brown and covered in mould. I think if the rain stays off long enough, I'll take whats left off the tree romorrow. Trouble is the bullaces and damsons are going the same way.BTW, how do you store the plums to ripen?

My Victoria Plum is propped up with brooms at the mo. Picked my first ripe fruit today and ate it straight off the tree - unbeatable!! I know you can pick them early and ripen indoors, but the flavour isn't as good. Loads of fruit to come. Brown rot not as bad this year as last, mind you I have been very good this year and regularly picked over developing fruit, taking out the little ones and the overcrowded ones. I'm lucky I suppose, My Victoria is not too tall and I can reach most of her from the stepladders.

We are fortunate to have a large amount of shed space, so they sit in boxes in the Workshed.
Rustylady, you must have far better taste buds than us, we find no difference in taste between the ones off the tree and the ones ripened indoors. If we left them on the tree, we would probably only get a very small crop though, the birds would have them all in no time.

Sorry to hi-jack your thread, Paulustris, but I wonder if you can help me with a victoria plum prob?

Utterly bumper crop this year on my small tree - fruits are now turning and I've picked two or three to eat - yum yum yum!

HOWEVER the one (outwardly perfect) plum that I picked this morning - took bite - exposed small WORM - euwwww!

So is there anyway to tell if there is a WORM in your plums, or should I just exercise caution when eating.....?

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sun 30/11/2008......Indoor Allotmenteering too!.....

Unless there is a hole in the skin, then no there is no way to tell. Be glad it was a whole worm and not half a one! Personally I always carry my gardening knife and use it to half the plums before eating. The presence of a worm does not alter the edibility of the rest of the plum by the way.
So next spring treat yourself to a Plum moth pheromone trap and avoid the problem altogether!
To add to the ripening off the tree thing. I will say that the ones in the picture are less ripe than we would normally pick them and that the ones at the bottom of the trays are more purple than the ones you can see.

Hi Hazel, I don't use chemical sprays, so when I pick a plum for eating I cut it open, remove the stone and then eat. If you are going to get a maggot it will be feeding around the stone, and the surrounding flesh can be a bit nasty, depending on how long maggie has been there. There is usually no visible entry point, so this is the only foolproof way I've found. The maggoty fruits can still be used for pies, jams, chutneys etc - just cut away any damaged bits. There is usually just one maggot per fruit.

Argh plums!!

I've just been out in the garden and picked 10lbs of plums from the lower branches of my trees. I haven't even started on the ones that are over 6ft high (got a lovely new fruit picker contraption to test out)

Making jam tomorrow, it went down very well last year, and people have been asking for it again, so I'll do another 40 or so jars and get rid of all the plums in one fell swoop!

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"Its not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you" - Bruce Wayne

What a fabulous crop Palustris!

I'm intrigued by your mention of your hedge. I'm planning to plant a fruiting hedge this autumn but had thought plums would probably grow too large and unmanageable to be a practical hedge plant for a town garden. Is yours a 'typical' hedge size? Does it take a huge amount of maintenance?

Claire

My plums are oozing with brown rot, maggots and general uck. Ive been saving all sorts of jars for the last 12 months and i am struggling to find anything to produce to put in to them.

A woman can only stand so much Pickled red cabbage...!!!!

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The plum hedge in question is about 20 feet high and will have to be pruned down to 8 foot or so very soon. In fact as soon as it stops raining. We are definitely not in a town and the plum hedge is an internal one. We do have a Damson hedge too, with a few greengages in it. That hedge is about 15 feet high and as that is a roadside hedge we do cut it back to the roadside, but not reducing it much in height. We cut the hedge back once a year. None of them are really that suitable as hedging plants, but they were here when we came. The rest of our hedging is a mixture of Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Elderberry and wild gooseberry. I would think the first two plus say Berberis would be better in a town where security is needed.

Superb pic, Palustris!

I'm envious of all of you who have lots of plums. We've only got two small tubs this year, photo attached, although it is about three times as many as last year (at that point only having had the allotment for a couple of months).

I picked several kilos of roadside damsons on a walk in Kent a fortnight ago, made loads of jam - skimming off the stones took an age, but it was worth it - and put the rest of the damsons in the freezer. After all that jam-making I'd like to do something else with our plums. Any recommendations?

Thanks,

H

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Thanks for that Palustris - I shall definitely stick with something more manageable!

Claire

My plum and golden gage are in pots to keep them manageable. The trees were only a fiver each so I reckoned I would try them in pots first and if they aren't happy after a couple of years I will plant them in the ground.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk