PLUMS - GAGES - DAMSONS

Second only in popularity to apples, a freshly picked, dew splashed plum is among summer's finest treats. A delicious, succulent flavour only available from your own home grown fruits. Cooking plums are usually hardier and more reliable cropping that the dessert varieties and often make larger trees. Dessert plums have a richer flavour and do best in a sunny, sheltered position or trained against a wall. The greengage types are generally considered to be sweetest and deliciously scented but they do generally need the more favourable growing conditions, and excel when trained on a south or west facing wall. A good average yield can vary between 40 and 1001b per tree in the open and 20-301b from a fan, depending on variety and seasonal growing conditions. In recent years, plums have been troubled with disease and pests, so it is very important to he sure you are planting healthy clean material. Most of our trees are propagated from selected virus free E.M.L.A. mother trees and all rootstocks used are Ministry certified as free from pests and disease.

ROOTSTOCKS

DWARFING ROOTSTOCK PIXY

The superb new plum rootstocks from East Mailing Research Station. This is the first dwarfing rootstock and makes the growing of plums in the garden easier. The trees will be more compact and can he restricted to a height of about 8' with pruning. Plums planted on Pixy rootstock, crop very early in life, usually the third year after planting. Plant 8-10'apart. The trees are easier to manage and can even be grown in containers. Very highly recommended.

SEMI DWARFING ROOTSTOCK ST JULLAN A

The standard plum rootstock for garden culture previous to the arrival of Pixy. Makes a tree somewhat larger if allowed to grow away, but still ideal and possibly better for the poorer, drier soils. Plant 10-12'apart. We would suggest growing this rootstock as a dwarf pyramid for the smaller garden. Plant 16' apart, but they reach a height of only 9' with this method of pruning. They will normally bear fruit 3 years after planting and pruning is easy, and is described at the end of the catalogue. The fruits on St Julian A rootstock tend to be larger than on Pixy. When grown naturally, trees on St Julian A are 40% taller than those on Pixy.

POLLINATION

Many varieties of plum are self fertile and need no pollinations. For those that do, pollinators are listed accordingly.

FESTOONING PLUMS ON PIXY

If you wish to keep your plum tree to a restricted height, then the easiest way is to tie the branches down. This is a very old method, is easy, and gives excellent results. This method also induces fruit bud production, giving earlier, heavier crops. The training starts after the first summer's growth, when the leading shoot is tied down to the base of the tree with soft twine. Festooning also works well with apples on M27 and cherries on Colt.