Plum 'Early Girl' in Bloom
Forum Archives
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Feb-26-2005 at 6:19pm
This is the first year this plum 'Early Gold' has flowered. I know its an early plum, but isn't this a little too early? If it is too early when we have a lot more winter weather is this going to affect fruit set? Actually I am wondering if it will anyway as my other plum trees are not in flower.
Below is the beautiful flowers, I couldn't pass up photographing today.
mdvaden
Location: Oregon, Western
Posted: Feb-26-2005 at 6:55pm
So it seems the flowering plum are starting to bloom too.
Nice photo.
I had my camera out too. I was trying some mini-videos to put on my image album. They uploaded, but it seems to take a long time to download. The 20 second clips are 28 megs. So for now, I deleted that file until I learn more or find a better way. At least I found out how to get the image host to display within my own page from my articles page.
Hey, with these plums getting ready to bloom, I'll bet the orchard I saw on Scholls Ferry Rd. west of Beaverton, will be in color soon. Looked like an Italian plum collection. That's what we planted at home. There's a pastry my mother makes with that kind.
M.D. Vaden
GardenNut
Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills
Posted: Feb-27-2005 at 10:00am
My pears are about to pop, too. The purple flowering plums are two weeks earlier this year than last as well. And they were really early last year. I guess all we can do is hope for no arctic blasts in March....
Chris Sunset 4 USDA 8a
bakingbarb
Location: Washington, Western
Posted: Feb-27-2005 at 10:18pm
Jealousy, jealousy! Lousy ha ha.
We are prepping a site that will have fruit trees, yippppeeeee. It was all blackberries, weeds and so on. What a mess.
~BakingBarb
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Feb-28-2005 at 8:49am
My italian plum and regular plum are not in bloom at all. I did notice however that the neighbors' plum is in flower. I don't know what kind it is but the plums are very small, just a bit bigger than the pit and are dark purple red whith red flesh. Cherry tomato size, actually. This tree normally blooms earlier than my regular plums.
Jeanne
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Mar-03-2005 at 7:55pm
Here's the whole tree. As you can see it is still on the small side.
So it sounds like this may or not be early? My apples seem about ready to bloom. I am not ready for this. It was nice to go for a walk in just my sweater though instead of bundled up with hat, coat, scarves and mittens. It was like May out there. Absolutely beautiful.
Barb, don't be jealous, just get those trees in and it won't be long before you will be harvesting away. What trees are you planning to do?
Chris, I am hoping no arctic blasts, crossing my fingers and toes, bowing before the arctic gods, dancing for warm weather, trying to cover all the bases.
MD I can't wait for plums! They were the last fruit trees we planted. Last year we had one plum off of one tree. I had a ceremony before I ate the sacred plum. It was yum! It was the Schoolhouse plum. I can't wait for the gold plum though, I love golden ones.
Jeanne I don't know what kind of plums those are. I am still learning about fruit tree growing, although loving every minute of it. I made a lot of mistakes with my trees, but they seem to be thriving in spite of my novice approach. Do you know how they taste? I wonder why they would grow fruit like that, must not have much flesh on the pits?
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Mar-03-2005 at 8:06pm
Oops forgot the tree pic:
First are more of the blossoms. Note the insect. I don't know what insect this is, but it appears to be pollinating.
Here is the young tree as of yesterday morning.
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Mar-04-2005 at 7:31am
Your plum is a beauty, Deb. Very beautiful shape.
Yeah, the neighbors' plum doesn't have a lot of flesh but there is enough to make it worth it. They are nice and sweet. You can just pop them in your mouth and then spit out the pit like a cherry. I originally thought it was an Oso berry because it doesn't have a straight trunk but it lives in partial shade so I suppose it makes sense for the tree grow where it can to the sunlight.
Jeanne
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Mar-04-2005 at 9:00am
I wonder if they have a Cornelian cherry?
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Mar-04-2005 at 10:36am
Good suggestion, Deb. But the flesh of the fruit is a dark purple-red and very plum like. The pit is also oval and flat like a plum, not round. The flowers are a white and round petaled, not yellow like a Cornelian Cherry (Cornus Mas). Good ideas to get me thinking though!
Jeanne
bakingbarb
Location: Washington, Western
Posted: Mar-05-2005 at 3:14pm
Ohhhhhhhh plums. We had a damson in Mi for some time (it was ripped out for the septic field). I cried when we lost it!
I have no idea the variety I want. Plums, apple (tangy sweet tart spicy plz), apricot and peach. Hmmm did I forget anything! All colors of raspberries would be nice and some black currants! I don't think I have room for all of this stuff. I also keep getting reminded that in 5 years we sell, developers already want the place.
Next place he gets a garage big enough for a working mechanic, I get a BIG yard and we want a small house! Why clean if I can be outside! I also will have some type of greenhouse there too. But right now.........I need to measure how big the space is and how many dwarf trees I can get in. If it came down to space, plum, peach then apple and apricot!
~BakingBarb
cjmiller
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Mar-08-2005 at 4:33pm
The first fruit tree to blossom in our yard is Shiro Plum. It has been in bloom for about 1 week. it puts on a very heavy load and has to be thinned to get egg sized soft yellow gold plums. I call it sink fruit because you really need to stand over the sink when you eat it as it is so very juicy. We also have Brooks Prunes and their buds are just barely begining to swell.
I always fear that we will get a hard frost because the Shiro blooms so early, but so far we have had significat cold spells and frost after it has bloomed but have never gone wanting for Shiro Plums--you need to have lots of plum crazy friends to help eat the harvest.
Carol
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Mar-08-2005 at 5:54pm
You know BB, I would recomend buying the smallest dwarfs you can and put them in large containers. That way you can transplant them when you move if you buy a place or keep growing them in containers. Many of the small dwarfs are suitable for containers. If you put in fruit trees now you won't be harvesting many until just when you are going to move. Just a thought, since trees are expensive.
Thanks CJ for the info. I am going to thin very heavy this year its first year. If you notice the branches are not very substantial, one or two plums will be bending those babies. As much as I would love a heavy yield, I don't think the tree is big enough yet. Can't wait for the first taste test though! Last year I was so pleased to eat my first ever homegrown peach. I was in heaven. I also busted a main branch on one because I didn't thin. You may remember me whining about it last year.
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Mar-09-2005 at 8:00am
Whining, no, never, Deb!
I agree with Deb, Barb. If you buy all the luscious fruit trees you are talking about, put them in containers so you can take them with you. After all, a developer is just going to rip them all out! And that would be a shame.
Jeanne
bakingbarb
Location: Washington, Western
Posted: Mar-11-2005 at 6:34pm
The shiro sounds wondrful. Can you make jams/sauces with it?
I thought about the containers but that is extremly hard work as far as moving them. I was thinking just regular dwarfs from Raintree but what I was thinking was they have fruiting trees if you go visit them.
But if we are going to have drought then I am going to wait until fall to plant. I will be putting gold raspberries asap though.
I think it will be 6 years before we sell but who knows! His son has a couple years of high school left but my daughter is only in 7th grade. The idea was to stay put until the kids are out of school.
I love those plums though so I might go out of my way for one of those now!
~BakingBarb
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton