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Plums must be allowed
to remain on the trees until fully ripe. The best
test will be to remove one when it is thought
to be ripe and taste it. If it is soft and juicy
and the stone readily parts from the flesh, it
is ripe. Most plums will store for several weeks
in a dry, airy room if removed from the plant
with their stalk and placed in cotton wool in
trays. Laxton’s Delicious and Coe’s
Golden Drop keep well.
As with apples and pears, some thought must be
given to pollination.
The flowering time of plums is from eighteen to
twenty-one days, so that except for the very last
to bloom, e.g. Marjorie’s Seedling, the
flowering period of many plums will overlap. Only
the very early and the very late do not overlap,
for plums are in bloom for only ten days and not
until the early plums have finished do the later
ones come into bloom.
Early:
Bryanston Gage
Jefferson
Edward
President
Denniston’s Superb
Utility
Late:
Belle de Louvain
Pond’s Seedling
Czar
Marjorie’s Seedling
Late Transparent
Oullin’s Gage
Victoria overlaps both groups and is a first-rate
pollinator, and for early and mid-season Denniston’s
Superb is reliable. Czar is the best pollinator
for later flowering plums and gages. These three
are the best and most reliable of all varieties.
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