Hi Lizzy, I have a Reine Claude de Bavay and three mirabelles. only one Italian prune-plum (doesn’t count). They are all producing well. I just love yellow fruit. I’m still looking for an excellent yellow plum.
Thanks I will ask Todd about a yellow this fall.
Mrs. G, I have finally settled on topworking my one peach to a functional multi-plum so I will use a coveted spot for something special that I really want: Luisa from NZ. Its a mostly yellow plum with a some pink blush in sun exposure. Hope to tell you in a few years that its divine. 
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One reason I haven’t added plums to peaches is that I’ve lost several peaches to borers, but no plums. I’m afraid to put too many eggs into a peach tree basket…
I suppose if you stay on top of it and treat for borers it may not be an issue, but I wanted to mention it.
A very valid concern Bob, and I appreciate you mentioning it. I treat as proactively and aggressively as I can for borers. All stone fruit is all going to get the same regimen. Looking at those godawful borer pics is enough to keep me on point.
In truth I also have some reservation on the overall tree life expectancy, as we’ve discussed in this thread. If I keep my peaches free of borers I hope to get decent life expectancies out of them. So I’m looking at it experimentally as well, which has an attraction. Worst case, I get good grafting practice and if the tree is not terribly long-lived, start over on a plum base again since I have two other peaches that will by then be in production. Best case, it works and sticks around.
The Luisa is going to claim some territory on the so-far sacrosanct front lawn. Hubby isn’t aware of that yet. But since I take care of that too, hey, its all fair, I figure.
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@PlumHill Eric, when your Shiro plums ripen in Vermont?
My Shiro, or what is supposed to be Shiro, has been ripening between mid to late August (zone 5A). I thought this was rather late for Shiro. All the other characteristics suggest it is a Shiro. I haven’t found any other plum that matches in description. LaCrescent is closest, but it isn’t a clingstone like my plum in question.
While waiting for Plumhill’ s response, I’d like to show you my very ripe Shiro. I picked them late. The last picking was Aug 18.
I am in zone 6 a, formerly 5 a in MA.
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First pick around Aug 13. Last around Aug 20. I could have picked them a week sooner around early Aug, too.
Mildly sweet. Brix is about 11-12 only. When I do not have other plums from my garden to eat at this time, it is a decent plum.
The tree was planted in 2012. I got over 20 lbs of Shiro this year. It is a keeper for me.
Most zone 6 maturity windows I’ve seen are around the last 2 weeks of July. This must be earliest they can be picked and still ripen off the tree. Even if I add an extra 2 weeks for zone 5 it still seems too optimistic for me. I have not seen such discrepancy with other fruit ripening dates.
It must be a bad year if they are only mildly sweet. Did you get a lot of rain in the past month?
I think a brix at 11-12 is considered mildly sweet. I ate my not fully ripe Satsuma, Satsuma tasted definitely sweeter but I could not get juice to measure its Brix yet.
Last year, I stared picking Shiro on Aug 14. So, about the same time.
We did not have lot of rain during those picking weeks. To me, Shiro is mildly sweet when compare to other plums I have eaten.
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Mine has always been super sweet. When people first try them they get excited about the juicy sweetness. Then they complain about the tart skin. 
By the time my Satsuma are good my Shiro are gone, or deep golden and over ripe. There’s no real overlap here.
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Alan, Mine do not overlap, either. I picked under-ripe Satsuma to compare the taste.
AJ, I start doubting if your Shiro is really Shiro. I gave done of my Shiro to friends and co-workers. No one called the taste “super sweet”. Also, no one ever complained about tart skin, either.
“Super sweet and tart skin” does not sound like Shiro, at least, not mine.
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Shiro do get very sweet under a good sun.
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My tree got about 8 hours of sun. I let it fully ripe. Brix has not been over 12. Taste buds do not find it very sweet and skin is not tart.
Maybe, the tree is young.
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I find that surprising. Plums generally don’t require full exposure to get good sugar although dawn to dusk is always best. The main problem with plums can be eastern shade which helps bacterial spot and encourages cracking.
Sweetness is not a problem with Shiro, IME. They just lack the richness of true bouquet, but when you’ve nothing better to compare them to they are absolutely delicious. The better things get the more we get used to better things. Humans usually don’t tend towards contentment.
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First, I’m on hill and the tree has full exposure from dawn to dusk. Second, my location typically gets at least a 4 week period of virtually no rain in the summer. Something in the topography repeals rain. You see the rain coming but it disappears off the radar as it passes over. Then it reappears after it is past us. All we get is the humidity passing through. Once this pattern gets momentum it can only be broken by an intense moisture system, like the remnants of hurricane. Unfortunately, the time of summer is different from year to year.
My big problem is getting through the late freezes. Else, I think I would be in a sweet spot for growing fruit (relative to the northeast).
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Hello, I pick my Shiros when the bottom point turns orange. They are sweet inside with an explosive crunch of sweet juiciness with a tart skin. If you let them get soft they are sort of mushy with less flavor (no tartness). Early Gold is a very good plum, the pictures look a little unripe, they smell delicious then ripe. I started picking Shiros the last week of july, and finished the end of the first week of august (about 2 weeks). Two of my big Great Yellow trees died this year, flowered, leafed out and died, Cold winter (-19) and weak trees do not get along well. Alabaster is a great yellow plum (lost one of those as well) you should look into making some of those if you can. good crop on the American Mirabelle, the europeans (Nancy and De Metz) had little bloom, Ny 858 has a small crop (first time) but are small vs the american (more like the De Metz).
As for plums vs peaches, Plums are much more reliable in marginal climates, and live longer than peaches in most.
Eric
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Thanks for responding Eric. I’m starting to think that I might have something other than the typical Shiro. It is like a late version of Shiro. I guess I could get some Shiro scions next year and graft them onto the same tree. Then I can compare blossom and fruit maturity times with all environmental parameters being the same. If they are different plums, there could even be a difference in fruit quality.
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