Hello, We have 6 yellow plums, in ripening sequence, Early Gold, Shiro, Great Yellow, Alabaster, Pearl, and Schoolhouse (late). I am not including the Gages in this, but some such as General Hand are very yellow. Pretty much everyone one knows Early Gold, a good early plum, and Shiro, which my son refered to as a “Sports Drink” sweet and juicy, but not much else. Great Yellow, which I believe is a Euro Luther Burbank intro ripens as the Shiros are finishing is a large very yellow “Clear” plum with very good flavor, susceptible to black knot, brown rot, and as with all good plums, the wasps and Japanese beetles love it. I got mine from GRIN. Alabaster and Pearl (both Euro’s) are mid season plums, very similar in flavor (very good), with Pearl having more of a a pink blush and Alabaster being more yellow and more productive. School House is a late(er) yellow prune plum which “can be quite good” if ripening conditions are good, heavy producer, pretty, but not in the same class as the others. We mainly grow it because people like yellow plums and we have no others which ripen in the same timeframe. I am thinking of ordering a “Vermont”, especially since we are in Vermont. Have not gotten the pruning done yet (to cold so I could do some scions. Here is a picture of Great Yellows.
PlumHill, what great information. I will go to your site and see the pics of the other plums and make a choice. I have said no more trees, but somehow I have three new peaches arriving this spring and now one new yellow (to be determined) yellow plum. I am most concerned about taste. Too sweet is not for me, so I"ll pass on the ‘Sports Drink’ (very funny by the way). I look forward my selection. I will need to know which trees fruit earliest after planting and when they ripen within the summer season. Thank you so much, Mrs. G
After a bit of research ‘Schoolhouse’ is ayellow prune/plum, I think. Yellow Egg is a prune/plum, have Italian already so that won’t work. I am looking for a culinary yellow plum and ‘Pershore’ is a variety of yellow egg I believe. Hmmm. Needle in a haystack. I am changing tastes on this one and it sounds as if ‘Great Yellow’ just might be the ticket. thanks all, Mrs. G
Mrs. G I know Raintree has Schoolhouse trees for sale the last couple of years, looked at it but never got one. I ended up ordering an Opal from cummings for this spring. As far as Yellow Egg and Pershore goes… the fruit and nut inventory book I have says the following shortened.
Yellow Egg-(Pershore) Euro plum that’s large, oval, golden yellow fruit. Firm, juicy, yellow, freestone flesh. Somewhat tart flavor until fully ripe when it becomes rich and sweet. Good for fresh use or canning. Vigorous, fast growing, tall spreading habit. self-poll., ripens late Aug. to mid Sept. depending on location. zones 5 to 8.
I looked up my order, 2001. At that time the donations from Todd Kennedy were not available yet and there was a passport which said:
Great Yellow
Large roundish fruit, Skin thin , clear yellow, flesh clear yellow, fine textured, with a mild subacid flavor: Ripens early, moderately vigorous, hardy. Relatively low chilling requirement.
THe number is the same, but I find it hard to believe my plum is a Prunus cerasifera. The orange red smaller plums on the left of the picture are Early Laxtons, and the larger purple ones are Comet de Kumbensk (sp) (The Russian Myroblan one that Raintree used to sell). Great Yellow is larger and sutured and much better.
I also have a “gold plum” from lowes. I didn’t buy a tree though. I happened to “find” a little tip of a branch that may have happened to break off. Anyway, I grafted it to a branch of one of my established plum trees. Was curious about what it may actually be? I’m hoping its byrons gold since I haven’t had any luck finding one of those locally.
More likely to be Shiro, I think it is the most common yellow plum- at least in these parts (the northeast). I’ve not even heard of Byron’s Gold so why would you think a massive commercial nursery would be propagating that? Seems very optimistic.
Yea, the shiro makes more sense I guess. I do see some of types that are suited for my area at the big box stores though. I actually saw some of the AU series stuff at Walmart a couple weeks ago
Well, I really have no experience with Walmart. My comments on big box stores pertain to Home Depot and Lowe’s, which are two of the same to me. I also expect there are store to store and regional differences.
I do think fruit fanatics should generally stick to specialty suppliers if they can afford to. The suppliers get squeezed hard by the big box stores to keep prices down, This is not a strong incentive to accentuating quality, including truth to label.
I planted a golden nectar plum last year. It grew well, produced one plum that was sweet but without much flavor. It bloomed again this year but with all the rain we are having I am not sure it will pollinate. It has been raining here every day for about a week, very little bee activity. It is a Japanese plum. It had some leaf diseases last year but most plums in my area do. If I have any plums from it this year I will give an update.
Byron Gold Plum- Jap. plum. Large,pretty, yellow fruit. Golden yellow flesh. Requires pollination. ripens 16 days after Methley; late June to early July. Originated in Byron, Georgia. Sources: Cu4 Cummins Nursery, Nrs NRSP5/IR-2 Virus-Test Fruit Tree Collection
Both are currently for sale at Ison’s this spring and they do have a 15% off on-line only coupon currently at their home page Code: TY15 Isons plums
Mrs. G, are you ruling out Gage-type plums? Because I hear Coe’s Golden Drop is wonderful, as well as its offshoot, Jefferson. But since you know Mirabelles, you probably know Coe’s!
Not withstanding the discussion about buying from big box stores, which we all agree has at least some caveats, I thought I would mention that Tractor Supply does have Byron Gold Plums in stock in my area, so if you are open to big box store trees-and I know many are not- you might want to check there for a Byron Gold. I bought one of the plums labeled “Gold Plum” at Lowes 2 years ago and wish I had some way of knowing if it’s a Byron or not. If not, I’d try one of these.
I must say I agree. Even as someone who has (in the past) purchased quite a few big box store trees, I readily admit that TS trees are among the smallest worst looking of all. Those that do have any size at all are usually long, spindly ones that obviously have never been pruned and were grown in crowded rows. So I didn’t mean to sound as though I was recommending anyone buy those plums. I just noticed someone had said they never saw any Byron Gold and that the OP was looking for a yellow plum. Since the ones here was still young, small trees I thought someone desperate for this kind of plum might want to give one of these a try. But thanks for pointing out the typical low quality of TS trees- I agree.
I brought home some Early Golden yellow plums from yesterday’s farmer’s market. At first, I was going to pass on them, as I assumed that they were Shiros (juicy and bland). I was pleasantly surprised to find Early Golden instead, as it got a good score on the Plumhill list.
The Early Golden is mildly sweet, with more flavor than Shiro. The texture is denser and less juicy, a big plus in my book. Brix ran in the 12-13 range, enough to be pretty good, though not great. But at this time of year, I think it is pretty good. Both the kids also liked it. I’ll probably look for some scionwood this winter, to add at least a good sized branch.
