Georgeson Plum
GEORGESON

A luminously yellow plum, the Georgeson was imported from Japan in the 1880s. Called  the Hattonkin in its native country, several persons tried to commercialize it in the final decades of the 19th century.  J. L. Norman of Marksville, LA, succeeded and named it after the Japanese plum pomologists Dr. C. C. Georgeson of Kansas.  The plum proved to be a fickle grower in certain American soils  Ulysses Hedrick though the fruit completely second rate and inconsistent in its shape and taste.  But he was, no doubt, responding to the bad epigenetic effects arising from growing the tree in New York State.  In Southern regions the fruit did not have the powerful astringency that Hedrick experienced.  His characterization of the fruit should be taken with a grain of salt: "Fruit early, ripening period short; one and five-eighths inches in diameter, roundishcordate; cavity deep, wide, usually with concentric, russet lines; color greenish-yellow changing to deep yellow as the fruit reaches full maturity, with thin bloom; flesh goldenyellow, fibrous, firm, sweetish except near the center; fair to good; stone clinging, five-eighths inch by one-half inch in size, oval, turgid, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture broad, slightly ribbed; dorsal suture acute" [Plums of New York, 219].  One of the more variable aspects of the Gerogeson's expressions in different soils was the juiciness of the plum--moreso in the South; more fibrous and firm in New York and New England.  

Besides Hattonkin, the Plum appeared in American markets under the alternative names Mikado and Yeddo. The American Pomological Society registered the tree and fruit as Georgeson in 1897. There was probably no plum to inspired so much controversy and differing opinion as to its qualities.  

The Georgeson proved so productive in certain settings that it needed thinning in order for the fruit to attain marketable size.  It proved subect to brown rot.  

In the South the following nurseries provided the Georgeson Plum in stock:

Alabama Nursery, Huntsville AL; Comol Springs Nursery, Dallas TX; Eastern Shore Nurseries, Denton MD; Fruitlands, Augusta GA; Peachland, Seaford DE.  

Image:  U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Ethel Schutt, 1912.

David S. Shields