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Fruit & Orchards

What type of plum?

17 years ago

Hi.

We would like to plant a few plum trees. There is a particular type that everyone in the family likes, but we don't know what it is called. One of the grocery stores in the area gets it every year in the summer, but the produce manager doesn't know exactly what it is, either.

The plum is freestone, spherical, with juicy, sweet, fragrant, crimson flesh, and skin so deep burgundy that it is almost black covered with a faint bloom around the stem.

So, does anyone have any ideas?

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Comments (5)

jbclem
17 years ago
I'm sure the supplier of these grocery store plums knows what he's selling, did you ask the produce manager who he gets them from. Or find the company name off the boxes they are delivered in.

I remember one of two plums varieties I used to grow had a dark red interior, but I don't know if I'd call it near black. It was either Satsuma or Santa Rosa.

jc
jellyman
17 years ago
nwl:

If your produce manager can't tell you the variety of the plum, he should at least be able to tell you where they came from, since it should be written on the side of the box. Most plums sold in U.S. supermarkets come from California, with significant quantities also imported from Chile. The Chilean fruit usually arrives out-of-phase with U.S. production.

There are several Japanese plum varieties that roughly meet the description you have given, but there is no assurance that you can grow a California plum in the State of Maine. If you want a dark-skinned, red-fleshed plum that you probably can grow in your backyard, you might look into Methley. All Japanese plums, however, bloom early and are subject to late frosts that destroy the blooms and/or fruit. In the final analysis, it's not what we would like to grow, but what we can grow that matters most.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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nwl_me
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the replies.

I only asked the produce manager. I didn't ask his supplier. I believe the boxes said something like "California Fresh Black Plums" or something like that. But each box had a mixture of different plums in it, some with yellow, orange, or pink flesh. The exterior looked slightly different on each variety, so after a while it was fairly easy to pick only the red fleshed ones.

I just looked up Methley on Google and it seems promising.
Scott F Smith
17 years ago
Many plums find your zone 4 too cold. Go to the Fedco nursery website and look for a good plum in their catalog -- they are in Maine and so have exactly the right plums for you. They can also probably help answer your questions if you give them a call.

Scott
bberry_gw
17 years ago
nwl,
Not sure where in Maine you are located but you should be able to grow many plums. You must be careful as some of the others have stated in getting ones that do well here. I have the european, japanese and the hybrids growing here in Jonesboro. The old Stanley does well some years and the Burbank had fruit for the first time last year. I have many more that still need a few years to start bearing.Sometimes I will cover the blossoms with a large tarp to protect them from the frosts. I find that if I can get 25% of a normal crop it is worthwile. Eating a tree ripened plum is much different than a store bought one. Be ready to spray against pests. Plums won't need much spray though. I have learned a lot on this forum and you will too.

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