11 May 2016

Rouge ou vert ?

I don't see many or even any apples so far, but there are plums. In French, they're prunes. And the ones pictured here will become small, ping-pong ball size fruits.


The red ones are red now, and they've been red from the beginning. The tree itself, which I grew from a pit and then planted in the back corner of the yard, has leaves with a dark red cast to them.


The pit came from one of the plums in the neighbors' yard across the road. Those plums begin their life green, and stay green for quite a while before they turn red and ripen. At this stage, they look like olives. The one I saved the pit from, several years ago, had turned ripe and red, of course.


The plums that are green when immature grow on a tree that has green leaves. The tree is less striking to the eye, in other words. Less decorative. Each tree and each fruit has its advantages and disadvantages.


The main difference between the two types of plums is that the ones that begin green, and turn red later, are "freestone" fruits. In other words, the pits are easy to remove because the flesh of the plum isn't stuck to them. The ones that are "born" red and stay red are a lot more trouble to work with, but they taste good.

18 comments:

  1. Two of my favorite colors, with yellow. Seeing the quality of the photos, especially the last macro, I assume you used the old-new-old Lumix camera.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The new-old Lumix (TZ18/zs8) is the only camera I've used for the past few weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Given all the fruit grown in this area...not to mention the flowering varieties of very similar non-worthwhile trees, grown for foliage and Spring flowers.... I am not surprised that, grown from pip, you have created your own variety!!
    Broadhurst's Plum....sounds good, tastes good, and by golly, it does you good!
    The only way to keep your variety pure, now, is grafting....and boy, do they do grafting in this area!!
    Our wonderful Reinette Blanche is now suffering from canker, so we had a scion grafted onto a non-dwarfing rootstock...cost a whopping 2 Euros!!
    The Croquers du Pomme from Veigne were giving demos in the village hall in Petit Pressigny....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Could it be that the tree grown from pit reverted to the original plum tree, if the tree the pit came from was grafted?

      Delete
    2. I assume that's what happened.

      Delete
    3. In your post of 15 april, the foliage of your twin plum trees looks definitely "purple", not green.

      Delete
    4. chm... reversion is unlikely if there are other fruit trees around... more likely cross-fertilization with another plum or mirabelle that was in flower at the same time and was compatible.

      Delete
    5. Tim, thank you for the explanation.Being a forrester, you know all these things.

      Delete
    6. There is a mirabelle tree just a few yards from the tree that has the now-green plums on it.

      Delete
    7. chm...that's not my forestry training/experience... It is from liking and growing soft fruit for aeons!

      Delete
  4. How satisfying to see it grow from a pit to a fruit-bearing tree!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is satisfying, especially since the tree is also so good-looking.

      Delete
  5. I think your plum trees are my favorite- the jam is delicious on tartines. I am also a fan of the nearby yellow plums which should be ripe in August.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The yellow plums can be amazing. They ripen later -- in September -- compared to July for the red plums.

      Delete
  6. That's very impressive, to have grown a bearing tree from scratch, so to speak. How tall is it now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I went out and looked to see how tall I think the plum tree is. Twelve or fifteen feet is my estimate. It also has a nice round shape.

      Delete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?