North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[lee reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>]

Apples ripen quite differently from plums. Apples are what are called climacteric fruits and they can ripen to some degree off the plant. Plants are not climacteric and might soften, even sweeten, off the tree, but this is more akin to incipient rot that true ripening. That said, apples harvested at their peak right from the tree taste, in my experience, quite different and better, than apples harvested early and left to ripen off the plant. My Macoun's, which I harvest in the morning just as they drop taste like a different fruit than Macoun's that I can buy.

Lee Reich, PhD

http://www.leereich.com

Books by Lee Reich:

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden

A Northeast Gardener's Year

The Pruning Book

Weedless Gardening

On Jun 30, 2006, at 8:12 AM, Thomas Olenio wrote:

Hello,

I knew they shipped apples under-ripe, but I had not stopped to think they  

did the same with plums.  This explains the very tart red plums my wife  

brought home from the market for the past two weeks.

The tartness, which was concentrated in the skin, was twist your face  

tart.  These were a product of USA.  Had great eye appeal though.

Meanwhile, about a month back, black plums from Chile were great.

I suspect that like apples, tree ripened plums are sweeter and have more  

complex flavors, compared to those plums which are "crate ripened".

Are there european plums for zone 5A?

Tom

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