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🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
Move through the SoilCommander growing library like a course: keep the navigation in place, open the next lesson, and build your garden plan step by step.
Plums (Prunus domestica) — Deciduous tree, 5-10 years to full maturity.
This crop carries an unusually heavy problem load: 7 diseases and 9 pests are documented for it, so most of the effort in growing it well goes into prevention.
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.
Diseases
Silver leaf
moderate
Chondrostereum purpureum
Named directly on the crop's own growing-guide sources.
Peach leaf curl
moderate
Taphrina deformans
Named directly on the crop's own growing-guide sources.
Bacterial canker (Prunus)
moderate
Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum
Named directly on the crop's own growing-guide sources.
Blossom wilt
moderate
Monilinia laxa
Named directly on the crop's own growing-guide sources.
Honey fungus
low
Armillaria spp.
Shared with the already-published apple and pear -- named directly by RHS or NC State Extension for plum too.
Propagate by chip budding or grafting -- fruit stones will not produce a parent-identical tree (RHS). Plant in a sunny, sheltered spot with good drainage.
Vegetative growth
3
Reaches fruiting maturity in 5-10 years (RHS), faster than apple or pear.
Blossom and pollination
6
White blossom appears in spring before the leaves emerge -- the latest-blooming of the commonly grown Prunus fruits, which suits colder climates (NC State Extension).
Harvest
8
Fruit matures late summer to early autumn, around September (RHS; NC State Extension), eaten fresh, cooked, or dried as prunes.
When to pick: Fruit matures late summer to early autumn (RHS) or around September (NC State Extension), when the drupes turn their full golden, greenish-yellow, blue or black colour depending on variety.
Full sun (6+ hrs). Soil high in organic matter, good drainage, moist conditions. USDA zones 4a-9b. Height/width 10-20ft. Propagate by grafting, root cutting or seed. White blossom in spring before leaves; fruit (blue/black drupes, 2-3in) matures in September, eaten fresh, cooked, or dried as prunes. Pests: codling moth (primary), webworms, mites, borers, plum curculio, American plum borer. Diseases: viral, fungal and bacterial diseases generally; powdery mildew, rusts, brown rot. Latest-blooming of the Prunus fruits, making it well suited to northern climates. Fruit/foliage reported toxic to dogs, horses and cats.
Moist but well-drained or well-drained soil, loam or sand, acid or neutral, ideally pH 6-6.5. Full sun, sheltered, south/west-facing. Hardiness H5. Height/spread 2.5-4m, 5-10 years to maturity. Propagate by chip budding or grafting -- stones do not produce parent-identical trees. Fruit matures late summer/early autumn. Pests: plum aphid, caterpillars, fruit tree red spider mite, brown scale, plum moth, bullfinches. Diseases: peach leaf curl, silver leaf, bacterial canker, blossom wilt, honey fungus; RHS flags it as a high-risk host for Xylella fastidiosa, a notifiable quarantine bacterium not currently established in the UK. Native to the Transcaucasus/northern Iran region and GB/Ireland. Family Rosaceae.
2 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What soil pH do plums need?
A pH of about 6–6.5. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.
What problems affect plums?
Our data links 7 diseases and 9 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
This page gives you the thresholds; the planner turns them into your own calendar. It works from what you can observe and measure in your garden rather than from dates written for somebody else’s latitude.
Science-based growing guides · Thresholds that hold in any climate
This guide states the conditions the plant itself responds to — soil temperature, frost tolerance, day length — rather than dates, because the same calendar month means opposite seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. Anything genuinely restricted to one part of the world is named as such rather than presented as universal. Written and maintained by our editorial team against international horticultural research and extension sources.
Sketch your exact plot shape, pick your crops, and get a spacing-accurate bed layout with companion pairings and a rotation plan. Spacing, companion pairings and rotation are the same in every climate and both hemispheres — pair the layout it gives you with when to plant to set your own timing from soil temperature.
