The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: joyofchicks on August 12, 2010, 01:55:47 pm
-
Not often in the fruit forum but... I am blessed with a damson tree which seems to be full of fruit this year. We have lived here for 17 years and I can't say I've noticed much more than a few old fruits on the ground before! My question is - can I use the damsons on the ground? They seem to be ripe and the ones on the tree are still quite green or is it still a bit early? I am in Aberdeenshire.
-
Morning :)
we've not even got a snifter of a damson here yet but I'd say cut one open and have a look to see if its ripe or rotten.
Our vic plums are still hard and green but we've had a few that look ready, cut em open only to find a family of bugs inside.
Generally the vics come out ready mid august then the damsons are a couple of weeks later
we are just enjoying the break between heron plums/cherry plums and the massive victoria plum harvest that takes us all day every day (and we only have 70 trees, would hate to be a proper fruit farmer!)
-
70 trees! I call that downright greedy!! ;D I only have one.
-
lol Sylvia!! and ironically plums are one of the fruits that we never bought so inheriting this orchard was a surprise!
-
hi its so strange that i came on here looking for damsons and i find it the top subject lol
i am on the look out for some damsons willing to pay for theam does any one have some for sale that they could ship to
me im in whitehaven cumbria or i can collect locally
cheers
mark
-
Plumseverywhere, can I pick your brains? At what stage can I pick my plums, I have victoria, damsom and greengage, last year i waited until they were nearly all ripe but found that they were difficult to stone as they were squashy(and the wasps were getting at them), can i pick the whole tree nearly ripe and let them ripen to just the right stage?
Dawn
-
Hi Dawn
we pick ours as they are literally about to ripen, usually if you can twist the plum slightly and it falls into your hand its ready. I made 5lbs of plums into chutney yesterday and they were all vic's - most were on the verge of squish and they stoned easily the ones that were a bit harder were less easy to stone.
I would pick just before they ripen and let them ripen away from the wasps :)
having said that we still have over 60 tree's laden with plums that we can't get to due to heavy rain and verging on flood!
Lisa