Plum Trees can are one of the easiest and most popular of the stone fruits that we grow in our gardens. These free-growing Plum Trees and Gage Trees need very little pruning, and most Plums are self-fertile meaning you only need one tree in your garden.
If your soil is sandy or chalky, incorporate lots of manure into the soil to increase its fertility and improve its texture.
Dig a planting hole 15cm (6in) wider than the root system once it has been spread out, and to a depth whereby the soil mark from the nursery on the stem of the young tree will be just covered. This should mean that the graft union (the knobbly part at the base of the stem) is about is 12-15cm (5-6in) above soil level when you have finished planting.
Incorporating bulky compost and/ or manure into the soil before planting will increase nutrient levels in the soil and give the young plum tree a good start.
Plum trees will produce flowers and fruit any time up to five years. Until they flower, feed with a general purpose fertiliser that you can add to water. Once the tree starts to flower, change this to a feed high in potash, like tomato food, which encourages good flowering and fruiting.
Prune in early spring: Prune all main stems to half their length.
Prune in late-June: Prune stems that are dead, damaged or diseased. Also prune stems that are overcrowding the centre of the plant- focus on taking out the inward-growing stems. Also take out the suckers (the vertical stems growing from the ground next to the main trunk).
Pick plums with stalk attached, when they are ripe and eat as soon as possible so you can benefit from maximum flavour. If you want to store plums for use later on in the season, pick when they are slightly unripe.
You can freeze plums- just cut in half and remove the stone.