I think Scott likes Satsuma. You might check on his "page".

I wait to see if more experienced plum growers in our area would respond. I just planted a Shiro and a Satsuma plum in2012 based on Scott's suggestion.

Last year Shiro flowered last year but did not set fruit. Satsuma did not flower. This year Shiro gave me 20 plums. They tasted fine but not very sweet. Still, they tasted better than any store bought plums.

I read that Satsuma tastes better. I am still waiting. My first Satsuma got canker on the trunk, not sure how long it will survive so I planted another Satsuma last year.

I have only three plums fruitnewbie. so I have little to offer in plum experience. One of the three I have is Methley and it produces good quantities every year. It has so far had no growing issues. It has never suffered from any kind of issue aside from plum curculio which I am sure can/will be a problem with any plum of any kind.
These were the best tasting plums I or my family has ever eaten. It is the most trouble-free fruit tree I have and is self fertile. As sweet as anyone would ever want and as juicy as a saturated sponge. Beautiful tree too with an awesome spring bloom display.

Fruitnewbie,

Check the thread out. Harvestman who is an experienced fruit grower and lives in NY state, does not think Methley is easy to grow in our area.

It may grow better in the south, but Rayrose does not think it's worth his time, either.

Another plum that has got high praise is Santa Rosa. I am interested in growing it but am not sure if it's a bit too cold in New England for it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Is Methley plum worth keeping?

Shiro if left to hang a long time is a decent plum, and its super easy and productive. If you want a really great tasting plum get Satsuma, Purple Heart, Lavinia or Laroda. Santa Rosa may not set consistently, I have had lots of problems with it. But its a truly great plum. Earli Magic is a great early plum.

There always seem to be widely diverging opinions on Methley. I never grew it but I had tasted mediocre ones and thats why. The flesh was good but the skin was too sour/astringent. Or so is my vague memory from about 15 years ago.

Scott

I agree with Scott that Satsuma is a very good plum although it does have some susceptability to bacterial spot. Methely is the most vulnerable by far to black knot of any I've grown but is a good plum when thinned heavily. Its key advantage is very early ripening. Early Magic is not available and Scott has it because I provided him with wood and he's a skillful grafter.

I've never grown plums on St Julian and wonder what your situation is in terms of space- if you are growing in containers you don't need a dwarfing rootstock.

Scott doesn't like Queen Rosa much but I consider it a great tasting plum that bears young and is easy to care for. It provides fruit in Sept., Methely in July and Sat. in Aug. Satsuma would probably be my first choice, but you need a pollinator and Queen Rosa would be my recommendation there. These three all have deep red flesh. QR is the firmest and Meth the softest.

Hman, I've never grown Queen Rosa, only Ruby Queen. RQ was good some years and flavorless other years.

Scott

There always seem to be widely diverging opinions on Methley. I never grew it but I had tasted mediocre ones and thats why. The flesh was good but the skin was too sour/astringent. Or so is my vague memory from about 15 years ago.

Scott

Scott I think you're memory serves you quite well. It does have a somewhat sour (but I don't think astringent) skin. You really need that though, otherwise it would be sickening sweet. As it is it is pretty much perfect I think.

Guys, just because HM has said he has issues with Methley doesn't mean it's no good for his area or your area. He also has issues with Honeycrisp apple too, yet there are scores of orchards growing them Z6 NY state. Search it. There can be a multitude of different reasons for that beyond climatic zone. I'm Z6 also. I'm not saying it's the best plum for fruitnewbie's place or his/her taste, but it is a good option. It's probably second only to Santa Rosa in recommendations for Asian plums I'd guess.
As far as ease of growing there is no way anyone could convince me of an easier to grow plum. For pete's sake it can be grown wonderfully without any spray at all save for the dreaded plum curculio. PC loves it, but it seems the love them all from my reading.
It's just an option. Fruitnewbie if you had posted in season I'd have sent you a half dozen to sample on my dime. I'm betting you'd have been impressed to say the least.

I don't know how Methely performs outside my area but there is absolutely no doubt, from my experience at maybe 25 different sites, that it is extremely susceptible to black knot and more so than any of the other 20-25 varieties of plums I grow at multiple sites. It is, nevertheless, a useful plum here except at the worst sites for this disease. Just expect to have to do a lot of cutting out of black knot and maybe replace the tree after about 10 years (if your site is bad for it).

Also, ask any of those commercial growers what is their most difficult apple to grow and I suspect the answer will be Honeycrisp. I have spoken about it to the Crop Production System"s main consultant to commercial growers in the Hudson Valley. He call's Honeycrisp twice as difficult to grow as any other major apple but worth it because of the high price per bin it receives from distributors.

This year at mine and two other sites where I grow it on 6 different trees and three different rootstocks, 90% of the crop rotted before it achieved decent quality.

I am not providing calcium sprays (as commercial growers do) and there may be something I haven't pinpointed that I'm doing wrong, but no other apple I grow gives me so much trouble. These trees performed well before they reached full maturity with well established root systems.

Scott, I made a mistake when I wrote Queen Rosa, I was actually talking about Ruby Queen, although I do manage a small QR as well, which has excellent fruit but may also have the same reliability issues as Santa Rosa and here, the same susceptibility to cold related cambium damage.

I will correct my initial statement to say that I consider Ruby Queen to be an excellent and easy to grow J. plum and the best late season J. plum I grow if you factor in overall performance including resistance to bacterial spot. It was also bred for the south and seems to be highly regarded for both quality and reliability there. People that want an extremely sweet plum may be disappointed with it, though.

I sometimes wonder if your evaluations also include input from other friends. I am certainly influenced by the opinions of my customers and friends of fruit from their own trees and what I supply them to sample. I have customers who believe their own Methely trees produce the best plums in the world (maybe not the ones who've sampled a wide variety of other plums, though).

It appears that Satsuma is going to require at least annual sprays of copper here to help limit bacterial spot. This is not an issue with more common east coast plums I grow here- at least at most sites. My main tree was healthy for the first 4 years but has gotten increasingly infected in the last 2.

The only plums I've gotten fruit from so far are Superior (very good, with 17 brix) and Toka (pretty good, but I need more sample- they are very small fruit and far less juicy).

From the farmers market, both Shiro and Methely were sweet and mild. Both were too bland for me, but the kids liked Methely. I'm sure the Shiro wasn't left to hang long enough- as it is the first to ripen there is always pressure to pick it as soon as possible so they have something to sell. Both are very juicy (watery to me...).

The Ruby Queen I got from the FM was very good. Firm, dark red flavorful flesh.

In the last few years I've added a lot of the trees mentioned above (Satsuma, Lavinia, Laroda, and some others), so hopefully I'll have some firsthand experience soon.

J. plums take less time to evaluate than anything besides peaches- at least most of them. Elephant Heart seems to take as much time as the slowest of E. plums to bear fruit but most do so by the third year in the ground in northeastern conditions.

I don't know whats up with Ruby Queen, I had one great year from it and four bland years. Maybe I should have let it try a couple more years.

Thanks for the head up on Satsuma and spot. I spray copper once a year now (spring) and get no bad spot on anything.

More folks should try Lavinia, its small but otherwise an amazing tasting plum that has been incredibly easy to grow.

Scott

Sign me up for some wood.

Also, ask any of those commercial growers what is their most difficult apple to grow and I suspect the answer will be Honeycrisp. I have spoken about it to the Crop Production System"s main consultant to commercial growers in the Hudson Valley. He call's Honeycrisp twice as difficult to grow as any other major apple but worth it because of the high price per bin it receives from distributors

Harvestman, I wasn't saying they weren't more difficult to grow as compared to something easier. We were talking about areas in which they are grown. What I recall you saying was that you could "not efficiently grow them". What I'm saying is that if that is the case there can be more reasons than just the area since they are after all commercially grown in your area and mine. You identified what I think is one of the weightier components in the absence of calcium sprays which I believe is a rather uniformly taken up practice when grown commercially. We cannot just make the assumption that if harvestman or appleseed or whomever in Z6 has issues it is no good for that area/zone.
Having said all that I do doubt the twice as difficult thing. HC is still commanding a premium but it is no longer twice the price it's more like 30% (on average). My mother just bought some at the supermarket for .99 LB.(sav-a-lot foodstores) and for some time before closing for the season a roadside stand here was also selling them at .99. Last year I bought them in Bedford, PA at an Amish or Mennonite store for .79 lb and I regret to say they were better than those off my own tree.
The supermarket apples came from Ridgetop Orchard in Fishertown PA and I suspect the ones I bought from the Amish came from there as well since it's only a mile or two away. The same orchard that I ate my first HC.
HC maybe wouldn't be commercially grown if it weren't so awesome and yet still have the potential for it. When was the last time you seen a Cox's orange pippin in a supermarket? I know I never have.

I have never had black knot or any bacterial or fungal issues whatsoever with Methley, but the tree is still relatively young so maybe it's something I have to look forward to, but I'm not expecting it.

Appleseed, the post's author apparently lives in NYC- my region, and black knot is pervasive here- always seems to show up because our native cherries tend to be riddled with it- at least as they lose vigor in old age but often on young trees.

If the poster is growing the trees in a property nearby NYC (a weekend property,say) BK will almost certainly become an issue- if the trees are going to grow in pots on a terrace in the middle of the city or even in a courtyard in soil, the range of pests will likely be greatly reduced.

Location, location, location.

As far as Honeycrisp goes, exactly what growers are getting per bin is not necessarily a pure ratio to what they cost in stores, but that isn't even the point. It is only that the apple is generally difficult to grow, at least in my region. Cox is even more difficult, although some growers, especially further upstate, do grow and sell it. I grow some branches of it here, and it does pretty well.

Once again, I'm only trying to provide information that helps folks have an enjoyable experience growing and harvesting fruit. I think it's best to start with the varieties that increase the odds of success and then maybe to branch out to varieties selected only for exceptional fruit quality.

Fortunately, I'm not all that crazy about Honeycrisp so I don't have to deal with all its issues to insure I have it stocked up in my cool room. My staple apple is Goldrush and there are several other apples that are much easier to grow than HC that I prefer to it. Honeycrisp tends to be most popular with folks who don't eat a wide range of varieties. That experience seems to increase the desire for interesting and more unusual flavor, maybe because of jaded taste buds.

Honeycrisp tends to be most popular with folks who don't eat a wide range of varieties.

ok...I see