Photo: YAMAMAYA — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 4 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Ripe fruit is sweet and rich — eaten fresh, dried into prunes, cooked into jam, or distilled into brandies such as slivovitz — with flavor and texture varying enormously between the many European plum cultivars. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.
- Hardiness
- Zone 4–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Aug–Sept
- Mature size
- Tree 6–12 m; dwarfing stocks (Pixy, VVA-1) hold it to 2.5–3 m and containerable
- Light
- Full sun; tolerates partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Garden origin
- Native range
- Believed to have originated in the Caucasus/western Asia region as a natural hybrid involving cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) and blackthorn (Prunus spinosa); long cultivated across Europe.
- Status
- Cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 3–5 yrs
- Growth speed
- moderate; saplings reach 1.5–3 m in their first 1–3 years
- Spacing
- 550 cm (217 in) apart — about 30 m² (326 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Elliptical to obovate, egg-shaped, serrated margin, hairy above, wedge-shaped base with a pointed tip, 5–10 cm long.
- Root system
- Sturdy and suckering.
- Fruit description
- Fleshy drupe 4–7.5 cm long, ripening blue-black, red, or yellow depending on cultivar, with a flattened, keeled stone that separates cleanly from the flesh.
- Propagation
- Grafted (cleft grafting or budding) onto seedling rootstock chosen for soil type, vigor, and resistance to Armillaria root rot; seed propagation is reserved for rootstock or breeding work and needs 90–120 days of cold stratification.
- Pollination
- Varies — many SELF-FERTILE ('Victoria')
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Broadcast about a cup of balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer in early spring for young trees, with supplemental nitrogen in mid-May and mid-July; healthy, well-cropping established trees often need little to none.
How it spreads. Spreads locally by root suckers.
Growing tips. Thin fruit clusters to one every 4–6 inches in early summer to prevent branch breakage and biennial bearing; highly susceptible to black knot (prune out knots at least 4 inches below the swelling in winter), brown rot, and canker.
Companion planting. A primary host of the black knot fungus (Apiosporina morbosa), which readily spreads to and from sweet cherry, Mahaleb cherry, and American plum growing nearby.
Grow journal
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