63. Opal - Dessert Plum
Season : Fairly Early - Harvest July/August
Pollination : Self Fertile. Group C
A popular early-ripening plum variety with a good flavour, and very easy to grow.
Opal is probably the best-flavoured early plum variety. It is actually a plum crossed with a gage, giving an enhanced flavour.
However the flavour depends crucially on developing sugars during the short growing period, and so really benefits from being grown against a south-facing wall or in a sunny aspect. In less favourable situations it will still give good crops but the flavour may be bland.
The fruit is medium-sized, coloured gold and dusky red with a heavy bloom, turning more blue when overripe. The fruit is at its best just before the colour changes to blue.
The plums ripen over a period of about 1-2 weeks, and although they do not keep that well, can produce an amazing aroma from the fruit bowl.
It is ‘free-stone’- the stone falling away easily from the flesh, which is is straw-yellow, sweet, aromatic and fairly juicy.
Parentage: Oullins Gage and Early Favourite
Originates from: Sweden
Introduced: 1925
Developed by: Horticultural Research Station, Alnarp