Plums

Of all the fruit that I grow (black raspberries, apples, Nanking cherries, currants, and rhubarb), the most successful and appreciated fruit are my Mount Royal plums.

We ordered a Mt Royal semi-dwarf plum tree from Jungs Nursery about 15 years ago. I forget the exact year. It started producing maybe two years after it was planted, but it really started being exceptionally productive about 6 years ago. I've pruned it a couple of times, and since I learned how NOT to prune fruit trees by practicing on my apple trees in the backyard, I think I did a pretty good job with this tree.

The plums are considered a European plum, so they are a denim blue freestone fruit with a white bloom, and they are smaller than plums you buy at the grocery store. The tree and fruit are very healthy, unlike the apples that get rust and apple maggot worms. Nothing really bothers the plums except that the tree is a favorite of the Japanese beetles. This works out OK though, because they only bother the leaves, not the fruit, and they don't do enough damage to hurt the tree. In fact, it could be that they provide just enough stress to jolt the tree into producing more fruit the following year. I have no idea. It also is very convenient that the beetles disappear by mid-August and the fruit isn't ready to start picking until the end of August.

We've been picking fruit to eat fresh, to make plum jam, plum cobbler, give away to friends and family, and to dry. The squirrels eat loads of plums too, but it doesn't bother me because I have lots and because they actually eat all the fruit. I've watch them, and they generally sit in the tree and consume the entire plum and then pick another one that they carry up to their nests in the trees. So there isn't much if any of that irritating squirrel habit of taking a bite then throwing the rest on the ground. They also seem to prefer grabbing the fruit at the top of the tree where I can't reach anyway.

I still have a few plums left on the tree now, but they have mostly been picked -- finally. I may grab the last few that I can reach and dry them.