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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My Gold Dust also has red streaks, also directly from a Dave Wilson supplier. It sounds like an east vs west thing.
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You guys are most likely right then, pretty strange, mine are yellow by the pit even! Crazy the differences of east and west!
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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.
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Why won’t you acknowledge that fact about Methley?
Because others near you seem to like the plum, but you may be right, which is why I made my statement with uncertainty. However, you’ve already stated that you don’t thin your plums and no variety I know of requires thinning as much as Methely. Otherwise, the only major difference between it and other extremely high quality red-fleshed plums here is that it is extremely soft fleshed when dead-ripe and never acquires a meaty texture. It even sizes up well when thinned early and hard.
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Others near me don’t like the plum and have told me so. It under performs
and doesn’t produce enough fruit to require thinning. and the fruit that it does
produce isn’t worth eating. It obviously is far better suited for your part of the
country not mine. Why can’t you acknowledge this?
OK, I acknowledge you have evidence that goes beyond your own experience- but I only have been made aware of that from your preceding comment. I have read comments from people in a similar climate and not too far from you that like the plum. I agree now that it can’t be a thinning problem if it is not setting well in the first place and I’m sure it is a dreadful plum as grown on your property, and that your experience with it seems to be very local. I will not make any statements in the future that fail to acknowledge any of what is written in this comment.
We good?
By the way, I have had the tree fail to bear at all for quite a long time at certain sites. I think just because the conditions kept it young and excessively vigorous.
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I have said this a few times before but I have never heard such varying reports on quality as I hear about Methley. I know farmers in Texas that say it is great. I know others in the Southeast that say the same thing. Others all over say its crap. It is really hard for me to believe sometime that we are all discussing the same variety. It is really interesting to me.
Drew
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I still believe that a lot of the people that don’t like it don’t thin it when it puts out clusters like grapes. It is one tough tree to thin properly when it sets like that. I just rub off every plum on the bottom of the branch and then go from there. Didn’t have time to do it for my customers this year and the plums are mostly bland and not from excessive rain.
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I have a tree with DWN tag that says “Catalina Plum” and the tree is actually Flavorosa pluot. Everybody makes mistakes, including DWN.
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And how do you know it wasn’t your suppliers mistake when my tree matches the experience of two other growers, or that it performs differently there.
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The supplier is a very well respected local nursery (Harmony Farms in Sebastopol). They keep original DWN tags on all their trees, so I’m 99.9% sure the mistake is by DWN. What I’m saying is that the argument “If my tree is from DWN, it cannot be mislabeled” is not realistic.
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I spoke to him today and he confirmed that Jade is a bad cracker for them. I got some PF7a from them and they were large and bland- only 6 brix. This is probably an example of “maybe it can be good, but wasn’t here”. I got another Jade 2nd from them which was good (11-14 brix and crunchy).
I’ve never liked Methely, but I’ve only had it at the FM, so it was probably under-thinned (or not thinned at all). It has always seemed like a mildly sweet juice-ball. I prefer Early Golden in the same season (also at FM, though I’ve grafted it now). But I think that the later plums I’m getting, like Satsuma and Lavina are better. The Satsuma was heavily thinned by the cold, but the Lavina is really overloaded (pics in Lavina thread). Both are just ripening now and neither is super-sweet this year, but are in the 13-14 brix area.
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No one is making that argument. However it is more realistic (or probable to be precise) that the mistake was made once than 3 times. I believe we are all dealing with reliable suppliers, although I can’t speak for Mam’s source.
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My source is super reliable. I got scionwood from Scott 
whatever it is, it is an early peach. My first one was picked too soon. Quite sour. Have 3 more to try. It is funny to see Gold Dust turning red ( half red, not totally red) on an Autumn Star that have all green fruit.
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