Reinettes,

Thanks for asking this question. Like you, I've wondered what variety the old-timers grew. I looked it up in Granville Lowther's Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1914. He says that California grew the French or Petite prune. Here in the Washington, growers planted Italian Prune aka Fellenberg (which doesn't sound very Italian to me). Another source says Brooks was one kind of Italian Prune. Not sure. Here's a nice write-up in the Plums of New York.

When I was a kid, we had an old Italian Prune tree. Probably planted in the 1920s or 30s. The fruit were small and sweet, and the tree always had huge crops. My mom put them in the freezer, and we ate them still half-frozen as plum-sicles. Which reminds me, I have a few in my freezer right now. Might need a snack...

Cheers,

katmendeux

Our property was part of a plum orchard many years ago, and the offspring grow here still.  I'm not sure what trees were originally planted, but the ones that we have now are very nice; they all produce identical fruit in taste and appearance. They don't seem to fully match the description of either Italian or Brooks, so I gave up trying to figure it out.

The plums typically ripen around mid-September.  I don't water or fertilize them; aside from a little pruning of the younger trees, I do nothing except pick the delicious fruit.  They're amazingly disease-free.  They did suffer from coddling moth damage for a couple of years, around 10 years ago - other than that there has been no pest issue.  There have been a couple of years without fruit production (such as when we had the freak April snowstorm), but usually they produce a decent to an abundant crop.  For example last year my Japanese plums produced no fruit, while these plums had a light to moderate amount.

The fruit has amber flesh and is delicious fresh or frozen.  These plums are great in desserts.  Since they're descendants of prune plums, they would almost certainly make good prunes.  I love these trees.

I've contemplated planting a seedling in the orchard, to see if it produces an even better crop than the feral trees.  These trees can easily grow to 25 feet or more, though, and I'm not sure that I want the additional pruning chores to keep it smaller.  Since the existing trees typically provide an adequate harvest, it hasn't seemed worth the effort.

If anyone is interested in planting these plum trees, I can pot up seedlings this winter/spring.  I live near Battle Ground, Washington.  They grow fast and usually start fruiting within a few years.

(I also have a dozen mophead hydrangeas that bloom on old and new wood, in need of a new home, potted and ready to go - I hope that this isn't too out of line to say in a fruit forum.  But, if you're getting a plum tree, you might as well take a lovely hydrangea).

jafar said
 

Are you ranking them for fresh eating, prunes, growing?

I'm not sure I've had Moyer. 

  

Fresh eating. Never tried them dried, but have seen them for sale both locally and online (in both case labeled as Moyer), so you should be able to get a hold of some dried. Definitely read up on, find a way to taste Moyer. It would be my first choice for a prune-type plum to grow. I knew somebody who had one in their yard. Incredibly heavy producer. 

I am hoping to make some slivovitz. I have been reading and watching videos from Croatia about the brandy. I have had some slivovitz from Croatia and Clear creek blue plum, both were great. (and hideously expensive) Plumb wine is also an option. I will see which one tastes better. The kind of grapes that make good cognac, makes really terrible wine. Its probably why they distilled it in the first place.