Hello All:
New member here. I've enjoyed reading the forum and am looking forward to meeting some of you at the All About Fruit show. For now there is a quest I've been on, and maybe some of you have knowledge to further this quest.
This summer I bought "peach plums" at our local Farmer's Market. They looked like [url:31y76k56]http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg0800505122590.html[/url:31y76k56]. They did not look like the "Peach plum" shown on page 12 of [url:31y76k56]http://www.portal.msue.msu.edu/objects/content_revision/download.cfm/revision_id.298403/workspace_id.-30/Plums.pdf/[/url:31y76k56]. It did not look like the Zaiger hybrid Peachplum.
It was pretty aromatic and the aroma had a lot of peach in it. The flavor was a mix of peach and plum. It had yellow flesh and the juiciness and texture of a plum. It softened the way plums do.
In searching about, I have found "peach plum" listed as an Asian plum; even some trees for sale. I have found old fertilization charts listing a European "peach plum." I found this [url:31y76k56]http://www.archive.org/stream/briefhistoryofea00cardrich/briefhistoryofea00cardrich_djvu.txt[/url:31y76k56] which suggests European.
The guy who sold me the fruit bought the property just a few years ago; the two "peach plum" trees are old. He too would like to know more and hasn't been able to find out much. As he has both Italian prune-plums and Shiro Asian plums on the property, either could hypothetically provide pollination of the peach plum trees, or the old trees could be self-fertile.
If anybody has any information which would lead me further down the path to getting a little peachplum tree and being able to pollinate it, it would be appreciated.
The Plums of New York lists the Peach Plum as an old European type (Prunus domestica) that is the best quality of the early ripening domestica type plums. The tree, unfortunately, is prone to disease and gets gummosis and brown rot very easily. I've had a Peach Plum for many years and it fits that description (and the illustration in the book) perfectly. A few years after I got the Peach plum I bought a tree called "Peach Plum" from the old Gurney's nursery that they claimed had come to them as a peach-plum hybrid. All I can say about it is that it's identical to the "Peach Plum" I got earlier.
In short, the old "Peach" plum is a round European plum that ripens early. The shape makes the fruit look like a Japanese plum, but the tree is definitely a European plum tree.
Your description, and the photo on one of your links, makes me think this is some kind of gage. Gages are normally considered to be within Prunus domestica, but they are usually a bit smaller and always round (so they look a bit like Japanese plums) rather than the usual more elongated European plums. Some of the photos looked a lot like Oullins Gage, which is a popular yellow gage. Gages have quite a distinctive flavour, which I suppose you could say was peach-like although I have not heard it described that way before.
Thanks everybody. I should have been more clear about the pictures. In the first link, the fruit looked like that in the first picture. The second picture on that page has some yellow fruit in the foreground, which appear to be on a different tree (lighter leaves).
Lonrom, did the fruit from your tree look, smell, and taste like what I'm describing?
I’ve also a “Peach Plum†tree, described by a longtime and now deceased local plum grower as ‘an old variety every homestead around here had.’ My tree and fruit are well described by Lon as follows:
“In short, the old "Peach" plum is a round European plum that ripens early. The shape makes the fruit look like a Japanese plum, but the tree is definitely a European plum tree.â€
It does resemble the “Green Gage Plum†I’ve got grafted ‘around here.’ Best described by OP: “Gages are normally considered to be within Prunus domestica, but they are usually a bit smaller and always round (so they look a bit like Japanese plums) rather than the usual more elongated European plums.â€
The problem for me has been pollination of the Peach Plum. Isolated, it’s taken 3 or 4 other varieties of “Domestica†to finally cause it to bear – after 15 years of growth – it finally, just this year produced it’s fruit! Can’t say I detected the “peach effect,†though it ripened around the time of peaches… As mentioned, it most reminded me of a Green Gage plum. Definitely not an Asian plum.
PS – I loved revisiting the history of fruit in Oregon! That deserves it’s own post and link! http://www.archive.org/stream/briefhist ... h_djvu.txt
Some favorite quotes: “The early history of fruit-growing presents to the stu-
dent at once, a most romantic and a thoroughly practical
and matter-of-fact series of interesting pictures. It is re-
lated of some of the earliest settlers in the Willamette Val-
ley that nothing more thoroughly and painfully accent-
uated their isolated condition than the absence of fruit
trees on their newly-made farms. Half the beauty and
pleasure that brightens the life of youth and childhood, it
is not too much to say, is found in the orchard of the old
homestead the sight of the trees in bloom, the waiting
and watching for the first ripe fruit, the in-gathering of
the fruit in the fall, and the storing of it away in bin and
cellar for use in the winter around the ingleside.â€
And: “These were placed in soil in two
large boxes, made to fit into a wagon bed, and carefully
watered and tended on the long and hazardous six-months'
journey with an ox team, thousands of miles to the banks of
the Willamette just north of the little town of Milwaukie,
Clackamas County.
Here a little patch in the dense fir forest was cleared
away with great labor and expense, and the first Oregon
orchard was set that autumn with portent more signifi-
cant for the luxury and civilization of this country, than
any laden ship that ever entered the mouth of the Co-
lumbia.†[slight editing]
Charming… Welcome Aboard 
Here’s a good description of Green Gage (and photo) which looks a lot like the “Peach Plums†I finally harvested this summer … in August (not July):
"Green Gage - Medium. European Plum. Greenish yellow
skin. Very sweet, juicy and smooth amber freestone flesh. Wide climatic range. Sets heavy. Good cooked and canned. Ripens July. Selffertile. 400 chill hours. Zones 5-9."
I talked to the grower this morning. He saved a couple of the fruit in cold storage and will be bringing them to the AAFS next weekend for identification. I don't know which day or what time, but am hoping that we could have a little report on any findings here, to sort of archive any knowledge gained.
Viron those look like good eating!
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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