Generally it is in June, but the last couple of years they've ripened in May here, likely due to an earlier than usual winter/early spring warm-up, earlier than usual bloom set and warm spring weather. This year some of them were ready in May and some of them as late as July. It was just bizarre and while the native trees differ since they're not genetic clones of one another, I don't remember such spotty on-and-off ripening in prior years. We'll blame it on the heat.

Paula (P-Mac) picks plums in either June most years and she probably can tell you exactly when. I do think in one recent year she had them in May as well. They all were uniformly early, whether native plums or purchased commercial varieties.

You cannot judge the typical plum ripening dates by this year. The plums I grow ripened a little more than a month early this year because we warmed up early, stayed warm and didn't have any late freezes setting them back.

Chiggers. Chiggers. Chiggers. Chiggers. Chiggers. If you dab the bites with hydrogen peroxide when they start itching, it takes the itch right out.

Dawn

Gene - We normally only get a good crop of wild plums every 3 years because a late frost always bites them. However, the last 2 years have been good years. Last year, Seedmama and I (and others) picked plums until we just couldn't do it any longer. This year the crop was heavy also, but the insects made it miserable to try to pick ANY. I managed to pick enough to get 5 small batches of juice, which is only about a third of what I could use. I got so bit every time I tried to pick them that I just gave up.

The normal time is late June for these to ripen, but the last 2 years it's been early June. There were still some ripe plums in our thicket a week ago, but in this heat...ain't no way I was gonna try to pick 'em.

They tend to come up in some areas that I really don't want them to be so hang around and next spring, I can share some with you.

Paula

Hi, I'm trying to find some sand plums around Tulsa or Oklahoma City or pretty much anywhere else in Oklahoma. I'd like to try making some jelly for my fiancé as I've eaten most of his. Any suggestions?

i don't know why it's June down there, but for most of OKlahoma they come due around the 4th of July. I have 6 buckets Im willing to sell. 5 gallons for 90, 4 a pound or 10 for 35.

And I got ate up by chiggers too. They suck.

We're so far south down here that we have Texas to our east, south, and west so our tree fruit down here often ripen on a schedule more akin to that of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, which is about 85 miles south of us, than that in OKC, for example, which is about 120 miles north of us. We're zone 7b.