Nicholas Culpepper, the 17th-century herbalist, said of plums: “All plains are under Venus and are like women—some better and some worse.”
The better kinds are sweet, richly flavored, and choice morsels to put in one’s mouth. But, on the other hand, the poorest, and many of them, are not fit to eat.
Many species and varieties of plums provide a greater range of flavor and color than any other temperate zone fruit except the grape.
There are types for every state and much of Canada.
European Plum
The European plum, in its many varieties, is the most important in the world.
In most fruit-growing areas, it is grown extensively for Fresh Fruit and even more extensively to be dried into prunes.
Green Gage Plums
Green Gage plums are the elite of the plum world insofar as quality is concerned. They are a numerous group, mostly green and yellow, some with reddish flesh.
Reine Claude, ripening in September, is best known and most generally available front nurseries.
Washington, which ripens much earlier, is one of the largest and bears heavy crops in alternate years. Imperial Gage, an old favorite, is still with its and well worth planting.
Tops for Flavor
Golden Transparent Gage ripens in late September and is among the best-flavored plums. Pearl and Jefferson, ready in August, are also near the top.
Others that I remember with much pleasure but no longer listed by nurseries are OuHilts, Peters, General Hand with the largest tree of all, and Purple Gage, which is best as it starts to shrivel around the stem.
De Montfort, an old French variety, typifies another group of varieties. The fruit is medium size, dark purple, juicy, sweet, and rich.
It ripens in August over several weeks, an advantage for a home garden variety. Similar, but later is SEIMIO. Both are choice varieties for the home orchard.
Prunes
Prunes are also well worth growing for their high-quality fruit. These plums have a high sugar content and may be dried without fermenting at the pit.
The varieties grown in California are suitable for culture as plums in the East.
Imperial Epineuse is a large, purplish-red, very sweet variety of delicious flavor that ripens late. Agen, also known as French, is much smaller but sweet and worth growing.
Italian prune, often known as Fellenherg in the East, is used as a plum. It is deep purple, vibrant in flavor, good in quality, and excellent for canning. If only one plum is to be grown for home use, it may well be an Italian prune.
Stanley is an excellent prune type of plum that is hardier and more reliably productive than most other good European plum varieties.
It is one of the best (if one is satisfied with a fairly good plum), and it is certainly better than many commonly planted for home use.
Pacific is still another large, good-quality blue plant that is worth planting.
Japanese Plums
Japanese plums are widely grown but not noted for their quality. There are red and yellow varieties, and some ripen early in the season.
Burbank and Abundance are widely grown in the east, but their quality leaves much to be desired.
However, they are reliable and early, and the fruit is usable if they are thinned severely. Shiro is early and sweet; Beauty and Nlethley are the earliest plums.
Damson Plums
Damson plums are small, purplish plums of very tart flavor, which are highly prized for making plum jam.
Shropshire is the most widely-grown variety, but French is larger. However, any of them are good enough for home use.
In Europe, several white-fruited, sweet damsons known as Mirabelle plums make desirable sweet preserves.
American Mirabelle, a delicious variety of this type, originated at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.
American Plums
Several species of American plums were grown by the early settlers in the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains.
They were useful for cooking but far inferior to the European varieties, which, however, were not tolerant of this region’s winter cold and summer heat.
In the early years of this century, selected forms of these native plums, especially Prunus americana, and the hardiest Japanese plum, were hybridized at the South Dakota and Minnesota Experiment Stations.
Several hardy plums, decidedly superior in quality to their native parents and suited to the upper Mississippi Valley and Great Plains region, were produced. These have superseded the wild types previously grown.
Redcoat Rates High
Redcoat is one of the best of this group, but Ember, Underwood, Monitor, Superior, Pipestone, La Crescent, and Kahinta are other good sorts.
These varieties are uncertain pollinizers for each other, so a pollinizer should be planted with any of these varieties. South Dakota, Haga, Surprise, and Toko are suitable pollinizers.
Among the hardiest of all plums are the sand cherry-plum hybrids. Sapa, Opata, and Zumbra are among the varieties, and Compass should be included to pollinate them.
Those who like the richness of the best European types may not like these hardy hybrids, but I find them rather refreshing and acceptable after eating the very sweet Gage varieties. Furthermore, their hardiness is a prime asset where the Europeans are not winter hardy.
The beach plum of the dunes of the Atlantic coast has made a reputation for its jelly, and superior types are known but are not generally available. This native plum is ideally suited to seaside gardens, and it is ideal for preserves.
Control Plum Insects and Diseases
Plums must be sprayed to control insects and diseases if they are to be grown successfully. Brown rot, the most serious disease, rots the fruit in wet, humid weather.
Sulfur, used at the manufacturer’s direction, is the standard material for controlling brown rot.
The first application is made just before the blossoms open. The second is given when the shucks (calyxes) fall from the young fruits. A third application should follow three weeks later, a fourth two or three weeks before harvest, and a fifth just before harvest.
Removal and destroying all rotten fruits by hand picking or cultivation helps reduce brown rot losses.
Black knot, large distorted black galls, is serious if uncontrolled. These galls should be cut out and burned as soon as they appear, cutting four inches below the gall.
Wild or neglected plum and cherry trees in the vicinity are a source of infection and should be removed or the disease controlled. The brown rot spray controls the plum leaf spot.
The cause of wormy plums, plum curculio, is the principal insect enemy of these fruits. Parathion or methoxychlor, used at the manufacturer’s directions, in the shuck and later sprays, will control this pest.
Thinning of the crop is essential if high-quality plums are to be grown.
Thinning
Most plum varieties set much heavier crops than the trees can mature properly. As a result, fruit from overloaded trees is small, of poor quality, and may rot much more than when the fruits are spaced so that they do not touch each other.
Limb breakage may be serious if the crop is too heavy. Therefore, thinning is done after the June drop, leaving the remaining fruits spaced three to four inches apart.
When thinning, remove any insect-injured or otherwise inferior fruits, leaving only perfect specimens to ripen.
For the highest quality, the fruits should ripen on the tree. A thick mulch of hay or straw under the tree prevents bruising of the drop fruits, which are usually dead ripe and of the best quality.
Well-Drained Soil
Plum trees need well-drained soil and a site not subject to late spring frosts. Control of weeds by cultivation or mulching is desirable, but frequent mowing of the past is also satisfactory.
Nitrogenous fertilizers are most apt to be useful, but sonic potash may be needed on light soils.
Regular applications of a hay mulch deep enough to smother the weeds will often supply all the plant nutrients needed.
Pruning
Pruning should be light and designed to produce a structurally strong tree without the weak crotches that break under heavy loads.
Light annual pruning is much better than heavy pruning at infrequent intervals. It is better to err on the side of too little rather than too much pruning.
44659 by George L. Slate