PLUMS K-Y

Aug 1, 2013 by admin

It is easy for me to sit and write about plums with their fantastic taste and flavour, but the difficult part is for you to choose the right plum for your garden, if your mall or supermarket stocks plums, buy one or two  of different varieties to taste and this may help you to decide the plum tree of your choice!

KELSEY Plum.

The green skin of the Kelsey plum turns yellow with red highlights when ripe, and the aromatic plum flesh offers a rich flavour. to give you an idea of the Kelsey plum size, there are between 3-6 to the pound.

LARODA Plum.

Laroda is a plum strikingly similar to the Santa Rosa plum, but it is larger and can be picked earlier by about 5-6 weeks. with an excellent flavour and very juicy, it is classed as one of the finest fresh plums.

MARJORIE’S SEEDLING Plum.

A plum with an interesting history, as it was first raised in Staffordshire  U.K. in 1912 and then bought by a Mr Sykes inWorcestershire  U.K., but named it  after his wife, Majorie. The plums produced are large oval shaped with a bluish black skin and well flavoured juicy yellow flesh, kept in a cool place, after picking, the plums will last anything up to a month or more, being a heavy cropper this is a plum that can be used in many ways, and does not need a pollinator.

OPAL Plum.

The Opal plum originally from Sweden in 1925 and taken to the U.K. where it received the award of Garden Merit, with red to purple skins, and the plum has a delicious yellow flesh, having a taste similar to a gage. No pollinator is required due to its own fertility.

PLUMCOT Plum.

I have classed the Plumcot as a plum due to it being ahybrid, of 50% plum and 50% Apricot. Having been around since the 1930s in New Zealand, it is not certain whether it is a local seedling, or it was introduced  by Hayward Wright  (father of the Kiwi fruit). They are obtainable in 3 varieties, red flesh, white flesh and yellow flesh. The plumcot variety Kirby has a yellow flesh, and has a pinkish red skin and is juicy, mild, and although delicately flavoured this plumcot has a “hint” of bitterness.

PLUOT Plum.

 

Another Hybrid of 75% plum and 25% Apricot. Developed by Floyd Zaigler of the U.S.A.in the late 1980s it resembles a plum but is noted for it’s sweetness (compared to a plum), as it has a high sugar content. Whilst there are quite a few variations of the pluot, it tastes like a plum but has a hint of apricot in the taste.

Pluots are smooth skinned but without the bitter taste of the  plum skin.

  PURPLE PERSHORE Plum.

An excellent all round plum as you can eat it fresh as well as use it for cullinary purposes, the Purple Pershore plum tree is self fertile,  yielding very robust, regular crops of plums ready for picking in late  August, the very large plums are purple almost black with a juicy flesh.

QUEEN ROSA Plum.

A plum with a mild juicy flesh, but in cooking the plum it becomes tangy, The skin of Queen Rosa plum is similar to the skin of the Santa Rosa plum with the exception of the greenish yellow top at the stem. As a gauge of the medium size of the plum you would have between 3-6 plums to the pound.

RED BEAUTY Plum.

The plum Red Beauty has a dark red to purple skin and  slightly soft to the touch, but the  flesh of the plum is very juicy and sweet offset slightly by the tartness of the skin.

SANTA ROSA Plum.

The Santa Rosa plum is probably one of the most popular plums in Arizona and California. Whilst the Santa Rosa plum tree is partly  self  fertile, hardy and upright,  the plums need no pollenizer, (but the plum  crop would increase with a pollenizer close by). Santa Rosa plum trees  produce medium-large plums that have a crimson reddish skin which is slightly freckled yet the flesh of the plum is amber with a tinge of red, this  is a firm plum that is aromatic, sweet and juicy, but near the pit it is quite acid.

SATSUMA Plum.

                  (Nothing like the orange of the same name) Satsuma is known  as a “blood plum” due to the solid deep red skin and flesh, the Satsuma  grows as an upright tree producing large plums the ripen mid season, which are juicy with a very good flavour.

VICTORIA Plum.

The Victoria plum is one of distinction and very popular, found in the1840s the plum tree can be  purchased in varying sizes due to the stock it is grafted onto, but mostly taken for a normal plum tree due to it being a very heavy cropper, bearing large fruit with skin of red and a flush of yellow, whilst  the flesh  of the plum is a very juicy green to yellow, a self fertilising tree and requires no pollinator.

YELLOW PERSHORE Plum.

                   A self pollinating tree, Yellow Pershore produces yellow egg shaped plums which ripen in mid August, the plums are good for bottling/preserving and as a dessert plum if you like a drier fruit.

Plums like gages ( any many of the fruits in “Gardening for you”)can be used in a variety of ways from wine making to inclusion in a fruit salad or cookng, I would suggest, dependant on variety used that sweetening may be necessary dependant on the use it is put to, also the fruit set against the leaves on the tree can make a contrast to other fruit in your garden. You can see from the collection of plums and gages together with damsons, that some have originated around the world, but local growers to you, have developed similar types that are probably more suited to your area, and thanks to their skill you now have a choice of fine trees.