Plum Essentials

Food Gardening Guide → Fruit Gardening Guide for Plums

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• Some plums are self-fertile but all plums will yield better if planted with a second variety for cross-pollination. Japanese plums need to cross-pollinate with other Japanese or American hybrid plums.
• Order bare-root, rather than potted trees, if possible.
• A well-established tree will yield up to 2 bushels of plums.

• Select a site that offers loamy, well-drained soil in full sun.
• Avoid frost pockets.

• Set the tree in the prepared hole keeping the graft union an inch above the soil line.
• Space standard-size varieties 20 to 25 feet apart, dwarfs 15 to 20 feet apart.

• Water young trees heavily every week through the first season.
• Train Japanese trees to an open center shape; train European trees to a conical shape with a central leader.
• Japanese plum trees benefit from a moderate fruit thinning; do not thin European plums unless the crop is especially heavy.
• Plums are relatively pest-free, but may be visited by the plum curculio, black knot disease, and brown rot. See our article Fruit Pests and Diseases for controls of these problems.

• Harvest European plums when they are tree-ripe. They will be a little soft and should come off easily with a slight twist. Late maturing varieties should be near ripe with firm flesh for storing for a few weeks.
• Pick Japanese plums slightly early and allow them to ripen in a cool place.

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