easy method for plum jam?
rlegates
14 years ago
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lindac
14 years agocanarybird01
14 years agoRelated Discussions
pruning plum- 2/3 method versus pruning harder
Comments (11)I have done summer pruning for 2 years now and I really believe it is the best way to maintain trees to the height that I want, which no higher than 8 feet. I don't want to stand on a ladder to pick fruit. I still do winter pruning as well but it is a breeze now. No more need to break out the lobing shears. I got the idea from a man at Dave Wilsons Nursery. It really controls the vigour of the tree and with that you use less water because there is not as much foliage. And obviously you spray less because it is a smaller tree. Pruning when there is fruit on the tree works very well because there is no guess work on were the branch/tree is fruitful. It is a great way to thin fruit as well. So in reality I prune three times a year. I've got 30 trees and I takes me a good morning to do all of them. I wish roses were that easy. :) BTW, I see tiny pink tips on my cherry trees...Springs coming!...See MoreEasy propagation method
Comments (68)Lou- I suspect that you are over-thinking this. When I started out growing figs from cuttings I worried about many of the things you seem to be. What I have come to realize is that you can fuss too much and it's not helpful. Fig cuttings are very resilient and are one of the easiest things to root in my experience. My technique these days is to take a 4"-5" piece (making a fresh cut off the to-be-planted end if the pruning cut is old), scrape some of the bark off that end (maybe 1/2"-3/4"), dip the cut end in rooting hormone, make a hole 2" deep in a cup of moist potting soil, and stick it in. I keep it watered, and about 80F. And then I wait for it to sprout leaves: most of mine sprout in a week or two, while a few have taken up to two months. If I want to get really fancy, I'll use a little perlite in the potting soil, and I'll use a clear plastic cup so I can observe root growth. I generally have about a 95% success rate. I don't bother with putting the cuttings in the refrigerator first or in moist paper towels in a plastic bag, or any of that other stuff. I'm not saying those aren't good things; I'm just saying I no longer consider them necessary, or likely to increase my success rate Many of the fig trees in this country are the result of immigrants bringing over cuttings years ago that they carried with them on weeks-long sea voyages; they planted them when they got here and grew the trees they were familiar with. I guarantee that they were not cold stratifying these cuttings or any of the other sophisticated things we now do. You've got 140 cuttings? With even a little success you will have far more fig trees than you can plant and unload on your relatives. As much as I love figs and fig trees, I realistically only have room for about 20 plants in my fairly big yard....See MoreBeach Plum Jam Recipe
Comments (8)Could you be more specific then about what you are looking for? Are you wanting to mix them with other fruit of some kind? Otherwise most all the recipes for Plum Jams are the same - nothing more than the plums and various amounts of sugar. In other words, nothing unique. And wild plums are used just like any other plums and nothing unusual is required. You can mix them with just about any other fruit in equal proportions if you want something special and no specific recipe is needed. And BBB has a good recipe for Plum Conserve with orange pulp, orange peel, raisins, and chopped pecans. Page 32 in current edition. And Small Batch Preserving has a Plum Amaretto Jam. But those are the only unusual ones I can find in any of my books. Dave...See MoreCrystals in Jam problem, can this jam be saved??
Comments (12)It isn't always the case that it's simply undissolved or recrystallized sugar. If you taste one of the grains.. If it's really sweet, it's sugar. If it isn't and can even be very bitter, it's undissolved pectin that has gelled to itself like a grain of chia. There are instanced of pectin that require calcium not dissolving in the presence of too much sugar, too quickly in the recipe. Lower sugar pectins suffer from this problem. I discovered and looked into it a lot when a regular sugar jelly we make had a grainy and liquidy, despite being the exact same recipe. Reboiling (in this instance) at a very high heat for a few minutes helped a lot, but didn't really fix it entirely. The solution is to dissolve the pectin into any other low sugar liquids along with the fruit, before adding the sugar. Just another one of many things it can be I guess. :)...See Moredenise8101214
14 years agolpinkmountain
14 years ago
annie1992
14 years ago
CA Kate z9
14 years agocora51
4 years ago
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rlegatesOriginal Author