Can I eat these plums?!

[turquoiseseaside]

Wish I knew more about plants. I am struggling in my new garden. Moved in a year ago and seeing all sort of strange things. Even found a wonderful wasps nest in a tree stump yesterday can you tell I've moved from a town to the countryside and haven't got a clue much to my shame.

Does anyone know if I can eat these plums? If anyone answers I may have to venture around and ask some more fruity questions as I do have some other trees with something growing on them Thanks

i wouldn't be so sure about the apples and whether they are ready. They could be Discoverys which are in the shops now. Do you know anyone with membership of the RHS as they do apple identification I think.
Having said that, my Bramleys are blushing slightly. We always leave them on the tree until the redden as they are much nicer. Shop bought ones are always green.
I made spiced apple chutney from some windfalls yesterday, they were a bit sharp when I tasted some but edible raw.

To tell if apples are ready, lift them and they should come off the tree easily.

Was just coming on to say to test whether apples are ripe, place your hand under the apple and lift it up a little. If it is ripe that will be enough to break the connection with the tree.

See @MereDintofPandiculation got there first. Couldn't resist adding it too, it's about the only thing I know about growing apples.

The Victoria plums look delicious. I agree that slicing them in half (around the stone ) and eating will be marvellous. If you get bored of that, plum crumbed etc easy to google for recipes. Look out for one that includes almond in the topping.

Yes but be careful as our trees plums were full of eggs and maggots no outward sign of entry. Apparently a moth lays them in the flowers and then the plum grows around them. Knocked me sick. That was two years ago and I haven't eaten another one since!

So one more for today, if anyone doesn't mind, any ideas what these are? Looks kind of like a plum but they seem to be growing fairly close together so I'm not sure (again).

Thank you to those far more knowledgeable than myself!
Loving the plum knowledge btw.

Damsons! Yum

www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/expert-advice/gardeners-tips/growing-damsons/

Omg yes! Victoria plums! Best. Plums. Ever! You’re so lucky.. we’ve just been to a farm shop PYO and paid £17 for a basket of them they are soo nice.. I’ve eaten about 10 today already.

They look like damson. Might be useful to put something in your pics for scale - a ruler or familiar object that can be pegged to the branch.

Good idea about the ruler @PickAChew
@CloudsOfCeonothus I believe they are damsons thank you. I've looked them up and they definitely match the images online.

I am looking forward to eating some of these, so long as the insects leave some for me. Quite a few holes in some of the fruit already.

I am planning to learn how to deal with all the trees as well. Going to have some real green fingers at the end of all this garden exploration hopefully. Well, one can dream anyway.

Quite a few holes in some of the fruit already

That will be wasps! And the riper and sweeter the fruit gets, the more the wasps will be after them. Id definitely get some netting if I were you Op.

@Peachee

Omg yes! Victoria plums! Best. Plums. Ever! You’re so lucky.. we’ve just been to a farm shop PYO and paid £17 for a basket of them they are soo nice.. I’ve eaten about 10 today already.

Better than any plum you can buy in the supermarket 😋

I've just googled tree netting @Daisydoesnt I think I may invest in some of it.

My dd informed me earlier that she has a basket ready for collection ASAP too so it's all go soon, but I do think they need just a little more time to grow bigger and ripen up so netting may be required if we're to stand a chance of eating them with all the competition going on out there 🐝

We do also have pear trees somewhere as well but not seen any fruit yet so have to wait and see when they appear.

Really want the apples to be edible too as have a lot of blackberries are making an appearance now so maybe if I'm lucky I can fulfil all my gardening (city persons) dreams and make a homemade apple and blackberry pie or crumble.

That was two years ago and I haven't eaten another one since! I was lucky - I grew up in plum growing country and was used to have all sorts of different varieties, from gardens and farm gates, so the possibility of caterpillar debris was something I got used to young, so it has no capacity to mar my enjoyment now.

I suggest legalseagull that you don't delve too deeply into how figs are pollinated.

Going back to OP's purple plum-like fruits - my distant memory was that the season started with a small purple plum (Early Rivers?), then later in the season you'd get Purple Pershores. But Early Rivers has a "lavender" bloom. My gut feeling is that OP's are damsons. In which case I'm not sure they're that palatable raw, but they make the most excellent jam.

Really want the apples to be edible too Rest assured, the apples will be edible. The only question is what flavour. My favourites are Cornish Aromatic and Herrings Pippin both of which have a very spicy flavour, as if the cinnamon/cloves have already been added. But not everyone will like that.

This page is worth a look if you want to know what we're missing by allowing supermarkets to take over the majority of our fruit buying.
www.frankpmatthews.com/catalogue/fruit-trees/plum/

@turquoiseseaside , if the pears haven't appeared yet I'd say you aren't going to get any this year. Fruit starts to grow inside the blossom.

Oh that's interesting @Footle I have to remember which tree it is because I saw them when I moved in last September but haven't seen any yet so you're probably right then.

Tomorrow I am going on a hopeful hunt for pears as well then.

How can I have lived for so long without a garden. It's too much fun. Although the hunt for fruit is a lot more fun than the drastic de weeding that has occurred in the last few months. That is definitely one big downside of the garden. Weeds weeds and more weeds. And also deciding what is a weed and what's not, because apparently some of the 'lovely flowers' are also weeds. Me and the weed spray were getting on all fine and dandy until I realised I was most likely sparing far too many a flowery weed patch.

I have a lot to learn.

A weed is a plant growing where you don’t want it, that is all. If you like a plant, keep it. If any ignorant person says “but that’s a weed” talk to them about declining diversity and the need to support native insects

Absolutely do keep an area just for weeds. With a garden that size, some re-wilding would be invaluable.

I have a small city garden but have a load of ladybird larvae, at the moment. I've never seen them before, so they're amazing to watch. Even more so because the larvae all look the same but every ladybird I've seen is different. I'm probably only getting to see them all because I have an old, failing, plum tree that's infested with aphids.

They're harlequin ladybird, I think - invaders.

Looks like a Harlequin to me too. You can reportto the UK Ladybord survey who are monitoring them. They are canibalisitc and mayattack native ladybirds and other insects.

@RainingYetAgain

Looks like a Harlequin to me too. You can reportto the UK Ladybord survey who are monitoring them. They are canibalisitc and mayattack native ladybirds and other insects.

Oh gawd we had loads of those a few months back....

We have Damsons too and they make fantastic jam