Alan,
How are your Castleton this year? I have no other home grown E plums to compare but with brix all over 20, I am very pleased with it.
I have Coe’s Golden Drop and Parfume de Septembre ripening up. I just don’t know when to pick them.
I should go out and check on them now, they are about ripe. I had a few early bug-infested ones that were good.
My recollection from past years was that they were earlier but I could have mis-remembered.
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Thanks, Scott. My area is often 2-3 weeks behind yours. Judging from the name, Parfume may be the late one.
I’m still getting some soft Damsons with minor bug damage dropping. Today was the best one yet, it hit 20 brix. I had neglected this tree since I didn’t think Damsons were supposed to be any good. Now I think I’ll graft some scionwood onto another rootstock next spring and try to get another one going. The tree is from Stark Bros and the website says their Damson tree is a Shropshire cultivar. I don’t remember seeing that when I ordered it 4 years ago but could have overlooked it. These are very round and about 1" diameter. Some other sites show Shropshire being oval, so who knows? These are the best surprise of the summer so far, but I had a not-quite-ripe Mackay peach the other day that showed a lot of promise also.
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It and Empress are my most reliable plums and the quality is consistent year to year- a high quality prune-plum. I’m eating a waffle with a Castleton sauce with Erwin Bauer apples cooked in and barely heated sliced RedGold nectarines with plain whole milk yogurt and a splash of maple syrup. Or I was until I started typing.
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Would a fungicide have prevented this? In 30 years I have never sprayed the plant.
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Sorry, wrong post.
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“In 30 years I have never sprayed the plant.”
Sitting here in 8a Georgia, I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry…
I’m not sure a Euro plum would last without spray or attention here at all, let all be produce good fruit. 
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Seneca plum is the best for me this year. Super sweet, big size, firm texture meat, crack resistant, upright growing, no disease… I will move it to good location in coming November.
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Got several lbs of Castleton today. Very sweet. About 50% of the total crop were lost to bugs early on.
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@scottfsmith et al,
This is the first year of what I think a Middleburg and a French prune.
Is this Middleburg?
Is this French Improved?
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Do you mean Middleburg?
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Yes. I was thinking about Kate being pregnant 
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If somebody crosses Castleton and Middleburg, the resulting plum may be called Middleton. Or Castleburg. 
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You’re right. You’d trademark the names now, just in case.
Thanks for the correction.
If they crossed a Suburban with an Escalade,it could be a Suburbalade or an Escaburban,Uh,probably the wrong thread for this.Brady
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Looks more like Epineuse.
Here in S. NY Seneca has been inconsistent from site to site as far as productivity- the quality is excellent. At one site I planted it with a Long John and after 8 years (and the tree was already 4 yo) neither plum bore fruit. Finally I grafted Castleton and Valor to the trees and both have been productive since the grafts first started blooming. I bet no one at Cornell knows that the varieties are too closely related genetically to pollinate one another.
However, even with compatible varieties nearby at some sites it is not a reliable producer- at other it is. Very strange.
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Well, that would be interesting. I got scionwood from @scottfsmith two years ago and grafted it on my Castleton and Coe’s. Both woods fruit this year.
It is harder to see Middleburg on Coe’s as they are all yellow/gold plums. The one I posted above is on Castleton, a blue plum, so Its yellow color stands out among the dark blue.
The French Prune looks right. The “Middleburg” looks nothing like my Middleburg. I agree that it looks like Epineuse and it might have been a mistake on my part as I had Epineuse at the time growing close to my Middleburg.
Epineuse is a good plum, the only problem I had was rotting and I could grow it now given I am using Indar.
Note that with only one sample its hard to be sure, maybe its just an oddly-shaped Middleburg. Both Middleburg and Epineuse should eventually color up purple.
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