Do you have any early plums which can get up enough sugar to compete? I had a bug-bitten Lavina today which I thought was pretty good. 14 brix, with interesting flavor.
After I sampled it, I did some research and found that it is supposed to be a mostly yellow plum with a bit of blush. So I went out (in the dark) and picked a few more. Its a heavily loaded tree, so I won’t miss them if I pick a few too early. And yes, when they are all yellow, they are too early. They are still OK to eat, but not that good. Like what you might get in a store, 10-11 brix and a bit sour.
I’m not sure how dark they normally get. But, the whole tree is covered with yellow fruit now for me, not green (I think- sometimes I have trouble with colors…). It is visually distinctive from my other plums.
Cummins says “Golden yellow with rosy blush; birds don’t see it at all until nearly ripe.”
One other thing to mention- there was some doubt in the spring if I had mixed up Lavina and Laroda. I can report that they appear to be correctly labeled due to the fruit. Lavina does seem to be a very early bloomer for me, but still came through with a fine fruit-set, even when most other early plums did not (somewhere between none and light set, while Lavina is heavy).
Here is a description of Lavina from a Russian site, translated: “Fruit large for a cherry plum, 30 g, yellow, with dark red blush, glossy. Flesh yellow, of medium firmness, juicy.”
I have enjoyed a few Early Magic and not measured the brix but assume it is that high. The tree is difficult to harvest and the crop was light, so I’ve only picked about 50 fruit and have had my fill. A customer who I grafted a piece to a Methely thought it produced the best J. plums he’s ever tasted. Strange, he’s has an Elephant Heart tree, but EM is like a reliable, early Santa Rosa which has special qualities.
I find Lavina usually gets nearly all red before they are ripe. Go by how soft they are, not by the color. Those are indeed Lavina, both the coloring up and the unusual flavor aspect.
I ate a couple of Earli Magic from another site today and it was a few notches above what I have in my tree. More than an early Santa Rosa, it was richer and sweeter than any Santa Rosa I’ve ever eaten. Exceptional. I should note that my tree is not sited in the sunniest spot on my property. I must graft it to a tree in a better spot.
Hard to say, yours look to round, GD has a very portuding tip that usually looks different from yours. However you could just have a round one. The flesh of GD is pure yellow so that might be the tell tale sign. Check it out when it’s ripe.
It looks like my GD and I’m pretty close by. Ordered a tree from one of DW’s sources so it is what they are selling (probably). What distinguishes is not pure yellow flesh, but lots of red and very red skin, the flesh looks orange to me, maybe because of all the red. It also is isn’t very big. It is much more vigorous than any other peach I grow, but then, so is another tree going right next to it (Honey Royale), so it may be the spot.
I looked at the picture @stan posted the link, it looks like mine including the pointed butt. I agree with @alan that the flesh is more orange than yellow (but how we see color is debatable).
For example, the two pics of Lavina plums that @BobVance posted. The flesh in the first pic was what I would call orange and the second pic was definitely yellow.
Picked this Lavina today…they can be a little more gold colored–this one was down low…this was soft one. Good tasting… this tree has too many fruits so they aren’t sizing up…the other tree has bigger fruit, just not ripe yet. These things are bird magnets.
I know others disagree, but I personally don’t believe thinning plums
increases fruit size as it does with peaches. I never thin any of my
plums/pluots and still get large fruit on every tree.
I had only one plum on my whole Shiro tree this year. It was about 50% bigger than normal size. I have also some years not thinned my Satsuma much at all and it produced smaller plums.
That said I agree plums can be thinned a lot less than peaches. They also seem to not lose as much in the flavor when they over-set compared to peaches.
Yup, I disagree and actually think you hate Methely because you failed to thin it. I get to see the results of thinning and not thinning plums every season at many sites. Thinning makes them bigger AND sweeter. At least in the northeast, but I’m pretty sure everywhere.
What is unique about plums is that excess water doesn’t seem to affect brix much.
The flesh on my gold dust has been solid yellowish orange, there is no red streaking in mine at all. If you have red streaking flesh I would be pretty sure its not GD. If it is not I will send you scions for the real one this winter.
I disagree, I don’t know how you can be sure how vastly different weather might affect coloration. I’m pretty sure my peach is Gold Dust as I bought the tree from a DW dealer, one of two respected suppliers.
The more time I spend on this forum the more I’m made aware of how differently varieties perform in different regions, but even here, within short distances there are often inexplicable differences between clones.
