Plums
Prunus domestica

Plums are among the most delicious and succulent tree fruits, easier to grow than peaches and cherries, this makes the a favourite in many fruit gardens.
Damsons, gages and bullaces are closely related to plums and their cultivation needs are similar. Plums are usually divided into cooking and desert varieties. Cooking plum are mainly dark coloured, with blue-black skins, they have less flesh and a tarter flavour than desert varieties. The trees that produce coking plums are usually larger, hardier and more reliable cropper than dessert varieties.

Site and soil
Because there is no really effective dwarfing root stock, plums will eventually make large trees. If you are intending growing plums in a small garden they will need to be trained as, fan, pyramid or bush shape.
The mature size for these shapes will be, 2metre for a fan, 2.4metre for pyramid and 4metres for a bush trained tree.
As the plum flowers earlier than most other fruits avoid low lying areas which are susceptible to frosts. Although plums do best in full sunlight they will tolerate sum shading.
Because plums need a lot of moisture in the soil, avoid planting them next to other large trees. Although they need plenty of moisture they soil still needs to be free draining. A heavy loam or clay soil is preferable and one that has a neutral ph level.

Soil preparation and planting
This is best done in late autumn, but an open grown tree can be planted from late autumn to early spring. If you have heavy soil, work in some coarse sand prior to planting, to make freely draining soil more water retentive well rotted organic material can be added.
Plant and steak the trees as you would with cherries, making sure you firm the soil around the trunk.
Make sure the scion is at least 7.5cms above ground level, or the scion will form its own roots.

Aftercare
After planting make soil the soil is never allowed to become dried out, especially in the summer months. A good mulch of well rotted manure will help the soil retain any moisture. Plums need plenty of nitrogen and should never run out of lime.
In autumn fork over the soil very lightly, but not to deep as plums have a shallow root system.
A major problem with plum trees is the continual production of root suckers, which unfortunately use much of the nourishment need by the tree. Suckers should be removed when pruning, this is done by removing the soil around the sucker and making a cut where it is joined to the root.

Pruning
Because of the risk of the silver leaf disease the ideal time for pruning would be after fruiting in the summer, making sure all wounds are covered with a protective sealer.
Plums require less pruning than most fruit as they fruit on new and old wood. The process basically involves the removal of dead or weak wood and general thinning.

Thinning the fruit
Plums tend to crop heavy one year and light the next, excessively heavy crops can produce small, colourless, tasteless crops, so thinning is required to regulate annual fruit production. Thinning should be carried out in two stages, this first in early summer and then again after the tree has shed some fruit naturally after the stoning stage. Try to aim at a spacing of 5-7cms between each fruit. Even after thinning the fruit some branches will require some support from the load of the fruit. Upright stakes, with a fork at the top are often used for this, you can wrap some material around the branch where it comes into contact with steak for protection.

Harvesting
Trees begging bearing fruit when they are about five years old and harvesting is from mid summer to late autumn, depending on the variety. Leave desert fruit on the tree until they are thoroughly ripe to obtain the best flavour, for jam making and cooking plums pick when they are slightly under ripe. Always remove and destroy any damaged or rotting fruit, do not allow they to remain on the tree, as this increases the risk of brown rot.