Plum
Prunus domestica
Spring-blossoming stone fruit — alliums help keep aphids down.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 11 ft 6 in
- In-row spacing
- 9 ft 10 in
- Between rows
- 14 ft 9 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 120 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 30 days before the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Deep, fertile, well-drained
- Feeding
- A general feed in spring, and a mulch in late winter.
- USDA zones
- 4a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- March
- Pruning
- Prune in summer only, to keep silver leaf out.
Through the year
- Mar–Apr Flowering
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jul Fruit Set
- Jul–Aug Harvest
- Aug–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
Harvest
- When
- Late July to September in the UK (earlier in warm US zones); gages mid–late season, damsons last. Trees crop in 3–5 years. Fruit near the top and sunny side ripens first.
- What to look for
- Full color for the variety with a soft bloom, flesh yielding slightly along the seam when gently pressed, rich aroma, and the fruit parts easily from the stalk — the ultimate test is taste. For jam or cooking, pick slightly firm.
- How to harvest
- Lift and twist gently with the stalk on if possible; ripe plums bruise easily so cup rather than grip. Check for wasp damage and brown rot as you pick and remove affected fruit from the tree.
- How often
- Every 2–3 days over 2–4 weeks — a heavily laden tree ripens in waves. Thin earlier in the season if branches are overloaded (they snap).
- Storing the crop
- Eat dessert plums within 3–5 days (refrigerated, brought to room temperature to eat). Slightly underripe fruit ripens on a windowsill. Halve, stone, and freeze; or make jam, chutney, or bottled plums — damsons are essentially a preserving fruit. They do not store fresh long.
Companions
Comfrey, Chives, Garlic, Marigolds
Pests & problems
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Plum moth Pink caterpillars feed around the stone inside ripening plums. Use pheromone traps from early summer and thin overcrowded fruit.
- Bacterial canker A bacterial canker of cherries and plums: sunken oozing patches on the bark that girdle branches, with shot-holed leaves and dying buds.
- Brown rot Fruit rots brown on the tree with buff rings of spores, then mummifies. Remove all affected and mummified fruit promptly, on and under the tree.
- Silver leaf A silvery sheen spreads over leaves of plums and cherries, followed by branch dieback. Prune stone fruit only in summer, when infection risk is lowest.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Aphids
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
Did you know?
Leave plums on the tree until fully ripe — unlike pears, they won't sweeten once picked.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com