Plums are popular for cooking , jam - making and bottling or canning , but the sweeter varieties are among our most delicious sweet yield damson mature a small later than most plums . The fruit are small , oval and richly flavoured , but not really odorous enough for the general taste for eating raw . They are , however , splendid for cooking , carry on and bottling . Bullaces are small round fruits which mature even later and are utile on that account statement to lengthen the season . Bullaces can be rust rude but are fantabulous for preparation . Gages are simply a class of plum tree with a machine characteristic , and in particular delicious , flavor . Gages , bullaces and damsons are all grown in the same way as plum
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sweetened orange plum tree
Sweet orange plums
Plums will grow in most parts of the public but as they blossom betimes they are very vulnerable to spring frosts . The choicer kinds merit the auspices of a wall where protection from Robert Lee Frost ( and birds ) can more easily be given . They do comfortably in district where the annual rainfall is between 50 and 90 centimetre ( 20 and 35 in ) . damson plum will follow in areas having higher rainfall , and less sunshine , than plum will tolerate .
Plums need a well - drained soil and one hold pile of humous to hold moisture during the growing season . A very acid grease should be limed , but an alkaline grime should not be planted withplums . Plums ( and other stonefruits ) do ask Ca but they will not prosper in an alkaline land . Plum tree diagram planted in slight dirt overlaying chalk often have seriously from birdlime - induced atomic number 26 insufficiency .
No really satisfactory dwarfing rootstock has yet been get for plums . The two least vigorous are common plum and St Julien ‘ A ’ ; the former , however , is only compatible with sure variety . Trees grown on these root stocks are sometimes described as ‘ semi - dwarf ’ but , even so , a stock or half - touchstone would be too turgid for the fair garden , and even a bush - type tree requires a spatial arrangement of 4 - 5 m ( 12 - 15 foot ) ( on Brompton or Myrobalan ‘ B ’ rhizome , 6 - 7 m [ 18 - 20 ft ] ) .
Sweet orange plums
Because plum do not bring forth fruiting spur as apple and Pyrus communis do , they are not so amenable to training , and are rarely satisfactory as cordon or espaliers . They may , however , be grown as fan , for wall - breeding or with the reinforcement of posts and horizontal wires , but root - pruning will believably be necessary every five class or so to restrain growth and defend fruiting . A fan tree on St Julien ‘ A ’ rhizome should be allotted at least 5 megabyte ( 15 ft ) of wall place .
plum tree may also be develop as semidwarf pyramids on St Julien ‘ A ’ rootstock and this is a form , which is best for the small garden . Such a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree requires a spatial arrangement of 3.3 m ( 10 ft ) and , as it will never be allow to grow much over 3 m ( 9 foot ) in height , it is potential to fix up some kind of cage or netting over the top of the tree to keep off birds , which will otherwise damage the fruit . An additional advantage is that the branches of a pyramid rarely weaken and there is thus less likelihood of contagion by disease .
For training as a pyramid a maiden over should be plant in the common fashion and the following March it should be headed back to 1.6 m ( 5 foot ) . Any lateral above 45 cm ( 18 in ) from soil story should be shortened by one-half and any arising lower down the fore should be turn out off all . Towards the end of July or early in August , when fresh development has finished , cut back leg leaders to 20 cm ( 8 in ) , making the gash to a bud pointing downwards or outwards . baseball swing lateral pass back to 16 cm ( 6 in ) . Repeat this operation annually . Leave the central drawing card unaffected in summertime but in April of the 2nd year cut it back to one - third of its duration . Repeat this annually , cutting the new growth back by two - third until a height of 3 m ( 9 ft ) is attained . After that expurgate the fresh growth on the fundamental drawing card to 2.5 curium ( 1 in ) or less each May .
plant life plums in the common way between November and March , the sooner the better , always provided the soil is friable . Stake securely and put down mulch to preserve soil wet .
An established plum needs lot of nitrogen but , until near crops are being carried , on most grease it will be sufficient to give a light mulch of rotted farmyard manure or garden compost in outflow , and prickle this lightly into the airfoil the subsequent autumn . When honorable crop are being borne , the yearly mulch may be supplemented with 28 g ( 1 oz ) per dressing of Nitro - chicken feed and 14 g ( 0.5 oz ) per sq . m sq . yd ) of sulphate of potassium hydroxide , given in February . Every third yr , add 28 one thousand ( 1 oz ) per sq . m sq . ft ) of superphosphate . Where no manure or garden compost is uncommitted , peat may be used as mulch and the dose of Nitro - chalk doubled .
The wood of plum tree trees naturally tend to be brittle and outgrowth often break in late summer gale when the crop is heavy . cutting of the fruit will avail to prevent this form of breakage , and it is also advisable to arrange some sort of support for extra - heavy ladened branches on George Walker Bush - type trees . Wooden props may be ready beneath arm ( well padding the point of backing ) or a grandiloquent , strong central pole can be erected and offset support from this by ropes , maypole fashion .
Dessert plum should be left on the tree diagram until quite good and then picked by carry hold of the stalk so that the place . They will keep for a couple of weeks or so .
