Replace plum?
LeifUK
Posts: 573
in Fruit & veg
Three years ago I planted two two year old plum trees. One died this spring. The other produced plums that were insipid raw, and when cooked bitter. Yuck. So, should I replace the insipid plum, or was this a bad year? It was an Avalon or Opal, probably Opal.
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I had three plums. Two are coming out, a waste of space. The only one I would bother with is Victoria. Not brilliant when cooked, but fantastic when picked ripe from the tree, as opposed to the unripe fruit that gets to the shops. Of course you have to beat the wasps, although there haven't been that many this year.
Here is a description of Opal. A telling little comment under tha Tasting Notes.
http://www.orangepippin.com/plums/opal
I agree that Victoria is a good, reliable plum. I think ours this year were delicious, especially the later ones.
Consider replacing with a Japanese plum on a semi-dwarfing rootstock. I have 'Lizzie' on St. Julian A rootstock and it's a wonderful tree which is literally covered in blossom very early in the season, crops heavily and earlier than standard plums and the fruit has a fantastic flavour. Japanese plums are grown everywhere else in the world but rarely in the UK for some bizarre reason!
Thanks all. I might try a dwarf cherry and a dwarf Victoria plum, as replacements. I suspect an early flowering tree might not fit in as I live on the side of a (small) hill, so there is an incoming wind, and a few times a year strong gales damage anything not nailed down.