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Plums Again
Bergerac
Posts: 15
You guys on here have been brilliant with you good advice regarding my plum tree problems, hopefully I will solve my leaf curl problems but Im told there is no solution for my fruit rotting on the tree apart from removing the affected fruits. But my next problem concerns picked fruit which on the face of it are perfect, perfectly ripe or slightly under ripe either way fruit is in good condition but sadly overnight it can rot. I guess its the same problem the fruit face on the tree, is there no answer please my pet experts
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Posts
I think it's likely to be bruised, although you may not be able to see it.
Or are you storing it in too warm a place, perhaps?
I'm no expert having only picked fruit from a cherry plum for the first time this year but found the fruit continues to ripen very quickly after picking.
I made two pickings the first was for ripe fruit and fruit which was partly ripe but still half green. I left the green fruit on the tree but this was ready for picking only 7 to 10 days later.
Ripe fruit will rot very quickly and if rotting fruit is touching other fruits it will cause them to rot too. Storing them even just for a week in those cardboard egg trays will seperate the fruit, allow them to ripen further, any rotting fruit can be removed and because they aren't touching a rotting fruit does not effect the rest of your plums.
My experience has been once picked you need to decide quickly what you are going to do with the crop by way of preserving it, I made plum and apple jam but you can also make jelly's and preserve plums in a syrup. I'm sure someone else will be long to say what you can do with plums...
Hope this is helpful
My favourite for a glut of plums is to halve them, remove the stone, then freeze on a tray. Then you can bring them out, drizzle with honey and bake - delicious with ice cream
Thanks guys
Spicy Plum Chutney is wonderful and last a whole year. There are loads of recipes on the internet. This year's crop has been the biggest ever and I'm giving away bags of them (and eating loads too!)
My only real experience is with the wild type, small plums. My trees were grown by myself from wild collected plums, sown ~1985. They are now trees higher than the house and are covered in fruit most years, some yellow, some blue. The yellow ripen earliest, maybe 2 months ago, the last are now falling off the tree. We pick them and use or feeeze them whole the same day. A friend collected a bucket full last week to make jam, removing the stones with a coarse collander before boiling down.
We have had a bumper year with our Victoria Plums. Given loads to neighbours and friends.