Mid-August fruit garden updates
So many Pluots!! Aronias set heavily, European Pear harvest is over already, and a few other tidbits to share.
My multi-grafted pluot tree decided to fruit heavily this year.
They all taste very good, except that the skin can be rather tart. The Geo Pride and Emerald Drop are easily to peel away with your teeth, but the Splash is considerably more firm. But the skin isn’t nearly as tart on that variety. The flesh of Geo Pride and Emerald Drop are even sweeter than Splash. I like them all equally.
The Splash and Geo Pride ripened up first, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them all. I tried replacing the pluots for plums in a dish, and made a classic Plum Cockaigne.
The result: stunning in appearance, but the heat exacerbated the sourness and bitterness in the pluots, even with the addition of copious amounts of sugar. To me, the Geo Pride was so tart as to be inedible after cooking. The Splash was ok, but actually tastes better fresh, so there’s no need to bother turning them into something with all of those added calories.
Next I tried dehydrating them some of the Splash. Sadly this was a similar result, with the tartness overwhelming all aroma of the fruit. This is nothing like what happens when you dehydrate European plums.
In the end I decided this is likely a fruit I’d only eat fresh, with enough to share.
Though I got a very good harvest this year, I was troubled a bit this year by an issue in which about 10% of the fruits were going bad before they seem to be fully ready for harvest.
I asked a long-time orchardist that I know about this, and he said that Pluots ripen unevenly. The birds and insects are able to smell out the ripening parts and peck at them, which makes that part of the fruit go bad. There’s not a whole lot you can do. You could pick early, but the flavor/sugar doesn’t develop completely. Or you could bag them, but that’s a ton of work for an issue that impacts relatively few fruits. Most years aren’t as large as this one, so I will probably bag some up in the future.
The only other issue I had with Pluots this year was a bit of brown rot, mostly on the Emerald Drops. I don’t see a good guide on how to spray for this issue in the future. When the tree is fully harvested, I’ll do a strong pruning to increase airflow, and thin even more heavily next year. Hopefully it will stay a minimal issue.
My baby Centennial Crab apple tree set a few fruits this year. The flavor/texture is quite good. They ripen up fruit in July/August. They are sweet, crisp, a bit juicy, with a good amount of tartness. I look forward to having a full tree of them in the future.
Mulberries have set heavily, as they do every year. I’ve put many, many containers of them in the freezer. I really like them plain, slightly or fully thawed. I find it to be the next best thing to fresh fruit.
Aronias have fully colored up.
The branches are drooping quite a ways. I was little worried about splitting when we had a heavy rain/lightning event a week or so ago. Other growers assured me that they have not experienced splitting when rains come around. But some of the branches were almost touching the ground, and I thought they might break with the added weight of water.
I decided to harvest about a dozen quarts so far for the freezer and left the rest. The quarts I harvested are probably about a 3rd of what is on my 2 plants. The rest I left to ripen up further on the tree — according to Burnt Ridge Nursery in this video, the fruits lose quite a bit of astringency the longer that you leave them on. Evidently freezing the berries also helps.
My combo European Pear tree has already ripened up all of its fruit.
In the past this tree has not ripened up until further into September, so it was a surprise to me when they started dropping in mid-August. Perhaps it is due to all of the heat they’ve had this year, ripening them up quicker. It was a very good harvest, probably 30 pounds or so off of this tree. I have another Orcas that is young, and ripened up about a half dozen fruits or so. These are now all in cold storage, except for those that turned yellow already. They are super delicious.
Nectarines surprised me with a decent harvest this year.
I say they surprised me because the tree is heavily diseased with bacterial canker. There are shelf fungus growing throughout the main trunk. The fruits were small and had some blemishes, but they taste good so I will keep harvesting from this tree until I no longer get something that tastes good from it. I’ve planted plenty more stone fruit that is more disease resistant that will eventually fill its harvest slot.
I was given a Howard’s Miracle Asian plum for tasting by the Home Orchard Education Center.
I have a baby tree, so was eager to try them. The taste: the flesh is incredible. Soft, like a peach, juicy, sweet and with aroma kind of like a pluot. The skin, however, is awful (sour and astringent), so be prepared for that. It is best to peel it away with your teeth.
My understanding is that this tree is entirely unreliable in our climate, and you will only get fruit during good years. It will be a nice treat when it does fruit.
One of the varieties of Asian Pears that I have ripened up.
I’ve been eating this variety for several years now. The last two years have surprised me as they seem to go overripe well before you know they are even ready. I’m guessing the extended heat is the reason for this.
These fruits do not fall from the tree when they are ripe as some other fruits do. Nor do they detach easily, so you really have to watch them. In the above photo, the yellow fruit on the left is over ripe, and somewhat mushy. Not very pleasant. But the one on the right is perfect.
What’s happening in your gardens?
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