It depends what you mean by "ripen". If you mean that the taste and texture improves, then maybe. But they will never be as good as those ripened fully on the vine. Further, the shells will not harden and become protective for long term storage, as noted. So plan to eat them relatively soon.

If the infestation isn't too severe, you may still be able to get them down to acceptable levels. Sorry for the scare btw, but i don't think people realize how hard it is to get rid of them once they're dug in. !) Yellow sticky cards for detection and to get some of the adults. 2) Diligent spraying of damn near any plant with insecticidal soaps and neem oil. If you prefer, 'inorganic" sprays I'm sure are also available, but I don't know if they do any better. 3) This is probably the most effective and I'm still working on it myself(damn gophers) is to go with integrated pest management. Create an insectary for beneficial bugs to feed and breed year round so when the pests show up, you have the good guys to take care of them. Once you do this, you'll be able to decrease the pesticide use and you'll want to. Because you don't want to kill the good guys also. Read up on IPM(Integrated Pest management) -- also a forum on GW 4) in the meantime(since you probably don't have an insectary yet) you may want to order some beneficial bugs/larvae that you can release. I'm going to order some green lacewing eggs shortly. If you have an ant problem, try to take care of it-- they'll scare off ladybugs and eat the lacewing eggs Here's a couple of links that may be useful. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7401.html http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/quickref/pest management/plants_attract_beneficial.html http://tanishapuchalski.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/nature-gardens-ten-flowering-plants-that-attract-lacewings/ Kevin This post was edited by woohooman on Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 17:48

Yeah. Good experiment. Especially the taste test. Don't expect me to do the same in any quantity. These little #%^*)#$ are too hot to do more than a nibble or two at a time. Fwiw, I'm leaving mine out in the air, in a well-ventilated room, specifically to factor out any forcing agent. Next time, though, a side-by-side would be instructive.

Goodness!!! I read these posts and admire the photos of all the lovely plums, they are beautiful to look at and inspire me to try grafting some new varieties. Matt, do you wrap your scions before burying them? Does this work better than in the cold room? I have a Toka that I bought this spring on "mystery" rootstock that I am assuming is not hardy for this area as it came from a big box store not a local nursery. I have some native plum seedlings ready for grafting so I want to take some scions off of the Toka incase it doesn't make it thru the winter. I would love to store them outside if I could. At what time of the year do you start cutting? I read that they do it in Feb.