I've got a Stanley prune that has been a problem child all along. It gets every bug that comes along, doesn't grow with any discipline at all, resists shaping, breaks at a sneeze, and currently looks half defoliated in spite of being bug sprayed often. It's the vacationland of choice for tent worms.

It's the only tree besides the apples that has to be sprayed.

So finally this year, it gets some fruit for the first time. The fruit is absolutely perfectly round and very small. It's not nearly ripe yet, which is late for a Stanley.

I tasted the fruit. Even half ripe, it definitely tastes like a prune plum. The flavor and texture are quite good.

Those of you with Stanleys, is the fruit round until it ripens? Does it become oval late in the process?

I've just about had it with this tree, and am trying to decide whether to give it another year to get its act together. I don't remember when I planted it. It's either 4 or 5 years in the ground.

I'll put up with a primadona if it produces, but so far, all this tree has produced is problems.