Plum

1. 1

   Plant Victoria if you only plant one

   Victoria is the UK's safest plum — self-fertile, heavy cropping, classic dessert-and-cooking flavour, tolerates cooler gardens. Crops without a pollination partner. Other reliable self-fertile UK varieties: Czar (cooking, very hardy, the choice for colder gardens), Marjorie's Seedling (late, dessert), Opal (early, dessert). Non-self-fertile varieties (like Coe's Golden Drop) need a pollination partner from the same group — buy by name and check compatibility.

2. 2

   Pick a rootstock for your space

   Pixy (most dwarfing): 2–3 m tree, suitable for patio pots, fans, and small gardens. Needs permanent staking. St Julien A (semi-vigorous): 3.5–4.5 m bush — the standard UK garden plum. Brompton (vigorous): 5–7 m full-size tree, only for orchards and large gardens. Most garden centres sell on St Julien A; specialist nurseries (Blackmoor, Bernwode, Keepers) carry the full range.

3. 3

   Plant in a sheltered, sunny, frost-free spot

   Position matters as much as variety with plums. Plums flower in late March–April — earlier than apples or pears — and the blossom is vulnerable to frost. South or west-facing wall positions are ideal; avoid frost pockets and exposed hill-tops. Plums tolerate heavier soils than most fruit, including some clay, provided they don't waterlog.

4. 4

   Plant bare-root in winter

   November to March while dormant. Soak the roots for an hour. Plant at the same depth the tree was in the nursery — graft union (the bulge) should be 7–10 cm above soil. Stake permanently for Pixy rootstocks. Water in deeply.

5. 5

   DON'T prune in winter — prune in June–August

   The single most important plum rule. Pruning when dormant exposes the tree to silver leaf disease (Chondrostereum purpureum), a fungus that enters fresh wounds and gradually kills branches. The spores are airborne in winter and absent in summer. Prune in June, July, or early August when wounds heal fast. Light annual pruning is much better than occasional hard pruning. Remove dead, diseased, crossing branches; thin overcrowded growth; shorten leaders by a third if needed.

6. 6

   Thin heavy crops

   A loaded plum branch breaks easily. In June, thin the developing fruit so plums are spaced 5–7 cm apart along each branch. Heavy crops also exhaust the tree and trigger biennial cropping (heavy one year, almost none the next). Thinning gives bigger fruit, healthier trees, and reliable annual crops.

7. 7

   Net or pick at the right moment

   Wasps, birds, and squirrels all attack ripening plums. Net mature trees once fruit starts colouring (mid–late July). Pick when the fruit yields slightly to gentle pressure and pulls away easily from the spur — usually mid-August for Victoria. Pick over the tree every 2–3 days through the ripening period; plums ripen unevenly.

8. 8

   Watch for plum sawfly, plum moth, and brown rot

   Plum sawfly: small grubs inside young fruit (June–July) — affected plums drop early. Hang yellow sticky traps in flowering trees, or apply pheromone moth traps. Plum moth: caterpillars in ripening fruit (August). Pheromone traps from June onwards. Brown rot: fluffy white patches on damaged fruit — pick off and bin (don't compost); prune for airflow. Damp summers are worst for all three.

Plum moth, aphids, and silver leaf disease are the main concerns.