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  • From: sherwin <sherwindu@att.net>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] harvesting prune plums
  • Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 10:11:27 -0500

On 9/5/2013 5:37 AM, Alan Haigh wrote:
I use a fungicide to stop them from rotting so that I can let them get tree
ripe. Not the French but the several I grow, including Castleton and
Valor, the two I most recommend here in the southern NY area. I would
never want to harvest any plum before it obtains full sweet richness of
tree ripe, that is what growing them should be about as far as I'm
concerned. When people taste my plums they are amazed that such a fruit
even exists- it is that different from industrial plums picked hard and
sour.

I find I get adequate protection from rot here in the humid northeast with
something like Monterey Fungus Fighter (I use something packaged for
commercial growers called Indar) applied once about a month before fruit
begins to ripen. That way I can't "taste" the fungicide but the tree
ripens without rotting.


Seems like there is a variety of opinions on how to ripen plums.

Some internet sources insist they should be picked while still unripe
and immediately placed in storage at various recommended temperatures
ranging from near freezing to just cool. Other sources say it is variety
dependent, like Seckel that will ripen on the tree. I am a great believer
of letting fruit sweeten on the tree, but it is tricky with pears. It is hard
to get the timing accurate and they can get over ripe quickly from the
centers outward to the skin. Close monitoring could be called for certain
varieties, checking ripeness by lifting the fruit to the horizontal and seeing
if they snap off. Other tests could be depressing the pear near the stem
to check for some give. Although, there are claims that pears should be
ripened off the tree, I think this may be variety specific, so keeping them
on the tree with close monitoring may yield the sweetest fruit.

Frequent fungicide spraying appears to have had a big benefit in saving
my Stanley Plums, this year. First good crop in three years. Of course,
weather may have played a part.

Sherwin Dubren
Morton Grove, IL



  • Re: [nafex] harvesting prune plums, sherwin, 09/05/2013

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