Victoria plums

[rustylady]

Sorry to hi-jack your thread, Paulustris, but I wonder if you can help me with a victoria plum prob?

Utterly bumper crop this year on my small tree - fruits are now turning and I've picked two or three to eat - yum yum yum!

HOWEVER the one (outwardly perfect) plum that I picked this morning - took bite - exposed small WORM - euwwww!

So is there anyway to tell if there is a WORM in your plums, or should I just exercise caution when eating.....?

Hi Hazel, I don't use chemical sprays, so when I pick a plum for eating I cut it open, remove the stone and then eat. If you are going to get a maggot it will be feeding around the stone, and the surrounding flesh can be a bit nasty, depending on how long maggie has been there. There is usually no visible entry point, so this is the only foolproof way I've found. The maggoty fruits can still be used for pies, jams, chutneys etc - just cut away any damaged bits. There is usually just one maggot per fruit.

[OverWyreGrower]

Argh plums!!

I've just been out in the garden and picked 10lbs of plums from the lower branches of my trees. I haven't even started on the ones that are over 6ft high (got a lovely new fruit picker contraption to test out)

Making jam tomorrow, it went down very well last year, and people have been asking for it again, so I'll do another 40 or so jars and get rid of all the plums in one fell swoop!

[Seahorse]

What a fabulous crop Palustris!

I'm intrigued by your mention of your hedge. I'm planning to plant a fruiting hedge this autumn but had thought plums would probably grow too large and unmanageable to be a practical hedge plant for a town garden. Is yours a 'typical' hedge size? Does it take a huge amount of maintenance?

Claire

[seasprout]

Bum.

My plums are oozing with brown rot, maggots and general uck. Ive been saving all sorts of jars for the last 12 months and i am struggling to find anything to produce to put in to them.

A woman can only stand so much Pickled red cabbage...!!!!

[Palustris]

The plum hedge in question is about 20 feet high and will have to be pruned down to 8 foot or so very soon. In fact as soon as it stops raining. We are definitely not in a town and the plum hedge is an internal one. We do have a Damson hedge too, with a few greengages in it. That hedge is about 15 feet high and as that is a roadside hedge we do cut it back to the roadside, but not reducing it much in height. We cut the hedge back once a year. None of them are really that suitable as hedging plants, but they were here when we came. The rest of our hedging is a mixture of Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Elderberry and wild gooseberry. I would think the first two plus say Berberis would be better in a town where security is needed.

[hvrlon]

Superb pic, Palustris!

I'm envious of all of you who have lots of plums. We've only got two small tubs this year, photo attached, although it is about three times as many as last year (at that point only having had the allotment for a couple of months).

I picked several kilos of roadside damsons on a walk in Kent a fortnight ago, made loads of jam - skimming off the stones took an age, but it was worth it - and put the rest of the damsons in the freezer. After all that jam-making I'd like to do something else with our plums. Any recommendations?

Thanks,

H

[Seahorse]

Thanks for that Palustris - I shall definitely stick with something more manageable!

Claire

[shirlthegirl43]

My plum and golden gage are in pots to keep them manageable. The trees were only a fiver each so I reckoned I would try them in pots first and if they aren't happy after a couple of years I will plant them in the ground.