Topic: Best tasting plum trees.

[realfood]

Gardening Which has just published the results of their taste tests on plums.
Avalon.  This is a large, sweet, juicy, early plum which came top in an independent taste test. Slightly chewy skins but it is a freestone plum. Flowers April. Harvest mid August in the South UK, partially self-fertile but better if other plums, such as Victoria, and gages are close by. Available on Pixy, St Julien A, VVA-1 (Krimsk 1), rootstocks.
Burbank’s Tangerine. This is a sweet, juicy plum with some acidity and chewy skins which was well rated in an independent taste test. Flowers April. The harvest is in late September, so probably not suitable for the North. It is not self-fertile, so you need other plums to flowering in April to pollinate it.
Haganta. This is a large, sweet, juicy, aromatic plum with slightly chewy skins and a free stone. Flowers April. Harvest late September/ October, so probably not suitable for the North. Partially self-fertile, so best with other plums that flower at the same time. Well rated in an independent taste test.
They were rather sniffy about Jubilee, saying that it had tough skins, not very juicy fruits and the fruits tasted under ripe.
Has anyone grown these varieties and do they have a similar opinion?

[artichoke]

Opal is a delicious plum, rather like Victoria. Have to admit that mine (good year 2012) is neither flowering nor fruiting this year......

[Vinlander]

I've read the article and if you turn the page you find that good old Cambridge Gage is the best of the gages - and most people who grow both plums and gages would probably agree this means it's the best flavoured plum too.

They were also a bit sniffy about Victoria - they seem to have missed the point that Victoria plums (picked ripe - not the rubbish in the shops) have a subtle flavour that grows on you the more you eat - its almost the definition of how something can be subtle and delicious without being bland.

I've spent years comparing heritage varieties with the flavour of the month, and in general - with a few notable exceptions - most heritage vegetables that aren't still sold are pretty poor - often the flavour is poor.

On the other hand, most heritage fruits can still beat the rest hands down - especially those recent releases that the breeders so fervently hope are going to make them lots of lovely money.

I like Gardening Which - but there is a major trend emerging that I don't like - it seems to be employing more and more journalists and less gardeners - and that's why (I think) they are so keen on novelty and (probably) being shmoozed by the marketing departments of the big suppliers.

If you want to judge reviews fairly you have to know which direction the money is pushing from...


Cheers.

[goodlife]

Each one of us taste different flavours differently..uh...you know what I mean.
What is delicious for one may well be insipid for other..'horses for courses'.
There is nothing wrong with good old Victoria..and as Vinlander already mentioned..they need to be truly ripe for the best flavour.
I haven't tasted any of those mentioned being 'best'..but if they beat the flavour of my Herman plums..they must be out of this world.
Lot of the flavour is to do with the tree and how well it is growing. Truly happy tree that you have to 'hold back' for over doing it, will produce loads of fruit that is in top form....and my Herman is not failing me on that...
It wants to grow more than its root stock is said to do....right variety in right place and with a bit of right care and there is no stopping it  ...won't be long now..YUM YUM!

[Han]

OMG...I still have to learn so much! There are 3 plum trees over here with normally a huge crop. Enough of them to eat, make plum wodka or make jam.....Not ripe yet, that will take at least 6-8 weeks I think.
But what kind of plums are they? Have no idea (still a newbie :-()..........where can I look to sort these tree out?

Han

[goodlife]

Han, many online fruit tree nurseries have excellent websites with loads of photos and info of each variety..but national fruit tree collection has even more..  http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/a-z.php
Have fun going through the varieties 

[grannyjanny]

Sorry to hijack this thread but it is plum related. Our opal plum tree has died suddenly. Our fruit expert checked earlier in the year & it was alive then. Another plot holder was chatting to us the other day & said there have been several sudden deaths on our site. Is this a common thing with plums & has anyone else had the problem?

[realfood]

There are diseases which can cause death of plum trees or part of trees. Silverleaf and canker are possible. The advice is never to prune in the Winter, as the tree cannot seal the wound. Also use a sealing compound.

[realfood]

I thought that the Gardening Which article was useful if you are thinking of planting a new plum. The ideal way of course would be to try and taste the different varieties, but the newest are not readily available to taste. The harvest times are useful if you are in the North, due to the shorter season. Their advice on rootstocks was good as it indicated that some rootstocks are better on different soils.
I think that I will try and get Avalon to plant this Winter.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Cambridge Gage is excellent. It flowers so early that it's often too cold to allow pollination, and all the fruit come in a great glut, but I think that's probably typical of plums. My Victoria should have its first (small) crop this year. I may yet plant a third variety which ripens at a different time.

[Vinlander]

It's true that few plums have a long picking season - Victoria is quite good in this respect - cropping twice as long as my gages -  though it seems to produce two types of plums - every 3rd or 4th plum is plump sweet and delicious, but the ones in between are only good for cooking.

This reinforces my suspicion that the best plums are 'shy' - so they produce smaller crops of intense fruit - you could say they thin themselves - and a d**n sight easier it is too - one less troublesome job and one that's tricky to time!

My Dennisons is a pig of a tree to thin - but if I don't thin they all taste of nothing much - if I wanted to find out what nothing tasted like then it's a lot easier to buy a plum from a shop! (and the asian varieties are worse...).

So grow your own (european/eurasian) plums and gages people - or you don't know what you are missing - why bother growing things like melons and pears that actually suit the commercial supply chain?

Why bother growing grapes like the ones in the shops when you can grow Reliance or Glenora that are a totally different taste experience? etc. etc.

Cheers.