Plum delicious!

Among stone fruits, plums are the easiest to grow in Britain.

Picking your own tasty plums is a real garden luxury – they’re perfect for training to grow against a wall or fence. Plums make particularly good jam and are also a key to many chutney recipes. Don’t be daunted by these more unusual garden fruit trees.

October or November is the optimum time for planting out a plum tree, although you can if you’re brave, plant out at any time from late autumn through to early spring. A moist location in full sun is ideal for plum trees – they need warmth and plenty of light. Avoid areas which retain frost – if your garden is cooler you would be well advised to choose a later flowering variety. A good draining soil is needed.

Some plum trees are self-fertile, but many require a compatible plum tree nearby (plum trees are not so common as apple trees) for pollination to occur. Plum trees have a short and very distinct pollination period (almost exactly ten days) so if you choose a tree which is not self-fertile, be sure to also choose a compatible tree. This is especially important if you choose a 'gage'.

Choosing Your Plum Tree

Give careful consideration to what type of plum tree is best for you. Buying a plum tree which might grow to 30ft tall producing masses of cooking plums is not a good idea if you have a small garden and want eating plums!

The three key factors in choosing a plum tree are size, taste and pollination.

Fan trained plum trees grow to an eventual height of around 2m (7ft). Although the shortest of all the forms, they will grow to a width of around 3m and are really only a practical proposition when grown against a wall (not north-facing).

Pyramid trained plum trees are free-standing and will grow to an eventual height of 2.5m (8ft). These are a good form for a smallish garden - their spread will be about 1.6m (5ft). This form of tree has branches radiating out in random directions from a straight central trunk.

Bush trained plum trees are free-standing and are taller than the pyramid form - around 4m when mature. They do have one advantage over the pyramid form however, the branches and foliage are held around 1m (3ft) high from the ground - this makes mowing around the tree much easier. The downside is that some of the fruit will be too high to pick without the use of a ladder.

Standard plum trees reach a height of around 8m (28ft) at maturity - on your own head be it if you plant one of these in anything but a large garden. They will produce enough fruit to feed your entire neighbourhood and you will definitely need a decent sized ladder to pick most of the fruit.

How to plant

If you have a relatively small space for growing your fruit trees, choose a half-size or small variety which you can train against a wall. First of all, soak the roots. Then use a spade to dig a hole which needs to be at least a third wider than the roots, though no deeper; fork over the soil at the bottom of the hole. You’ll need to stake the tree out, placing a stake next to the root before filling in with soil, mounding towards the base of the tree. Keep the joint and the grafted part of the tree at least 5cm above the soil level. Firm the soil down gently with your feet, and water in thoroughly. Keep the tree watered until it has established itself in location. Feed regularly. If you are planting your tree to grow against a wall, plant it around 15 to 20cm away. Water plum trees thoroughly without waterlogging them. Spread fertiliser around the tree, up to 15cm of the trunk – do this in the early spring.

Harvesting

Plum trees won’t begin to produce fruit until year four or five. The harvesting period will last for around four weeks. Pick your plums once they can be removed easily from the tree. Remove any diseased fruit, as these attract wasps and disease. Ripe plums don’t last well – stored in a fridge they’ll last for a few days. Under-ripe plums will last longer if picked and stored in a paper-lined box to ripen in a dark, cool environment.

Hang up ‘wasp traps’, jam jars of sugary water, to prevent wasps from streaming to feast on your fruit.

Through the year

Prune your plum trees when the fruiting period has ended. Prune away old, dead branches, and prune to keep your chosen shape – fan trained against a wall, or free standing in a pyramid, bush or standard tree-like shape. Pruning will also help ward off silver leaf disease. Pull away any mini-trees (or ‘suckers’) which grow up from the roots. Don’t prune late when the trees are dormant in the winter.

To stop any over-wintering pests, use a horticultural oilbased winter wash in December or January. During the growing season you can use a lighter summer oil, and also protect from moths by applying a grease band at 50 cm above soil level. This is a sticky paper which will stop wingless moths from reaching up into the branches where they will mate and leave caterpillars to eat leaves and fruit. Thin the fruit on a plum tree in order to concentrate flavour and energy on a smaller, higher quality crop. An over-laden tree producing a watery bounty of plums is an undesirable outcome for most gardeners! Thinning out the fruit will also relieve stress on branches, helping to prevent diseases which enter through points of broken bark.

Plum chutney

Ingredients

1 lb 2oz dark red plums, washed and stoned
1 lb 2oz apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 fl ozs white wine vinegar
3 tbsp water
6 oz brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons salt

Method
Cut the plums in half down the crease, twist the halves in opposite directions and pull apart. Prise out the stones and discard. Roughly chop the flesh.

Place the chopped shallots in a heavy-based, non-reactive saucepan with the olive oil and heat until sizzling. Sauté gently until softened.

Add the chopped plums, apples, vinegar, water, cinnamon and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you have a soft and slightly thickened texture.

Heat the oven to 100-120°C /gas 1-2. Place a clean medium-sized jam jar in the oven to warm. When the plum chutney is ready, spoon it into the warm jar. Seal with a lid and leave to cool completely.

Can you grow a plum tree from a stone?

Yes, you can certainly grow a plum from a stone but it may bear no resemblance to the one tasted.

Most varieties are grafted on to rootstocks which control the vigour of the tree. This enables you to plant the correct sized tree for whatever application you have. With a stone grown tree, you will have no idea if it will grow 6ft or 60ft tall, so it is a bit of a gamble.

It may crop prolifically, it may not; it may taste wonderful, it may not.

It would be safer to ask what variety it was if possible and then buy a grafted tree of that cultivar.

However, if you fancy taking a chance and don’t mind waiting a few years, there is every chance that your stone will turn out to be everything it should be. Go on, give it a try!!!

You can plant it now in soil based compost and leave it outside somewhere sheltered but not kept warm. It may well show its face come the spring.

Varieties of plum

• Victoria – the most famous of plums. A chance seedling found in a garden at Alderton Sussex started its fame and it was introduced by Denyer of Brixton, London in 1840. A popular variety with large fruits, and an excellent taste. The flesh is green to yellow and very juicy. A heavy cropper, producing fruit in September.
• Bullace – strictly a cooking plum. The trees are smaller than normal and very hardy, they are also ornamental. The fruit has a very sharp flavour, excellent for jams and preserving.
• Damson – another cooking plum, but sweeter than the bullace. The fruits have a sharpish taste and are ideal for pies, tarts and jams.
• Gage – eating (dessert) plums. These are some of the the sweetest form of plum and they have a distinct 'plum' fragrance.