The Plum and Its Cultivation with Information on Soils, Tree Forms, Planting, Pruning, Diseases and Pests, and Varieties - An Article

By N. B. Bagenal

This vintage book contains a comprehensive article on the plum, with information on cultivation, soils, tree forms, planting, pruning, diseases, pests, and varieties. This concise yet detailed article contains a wealth of information on growing plums, and will be of considerable interest to both fruit-growers and collectors of antiquarian literature. The chapters of this book include: 'Introduction to Fruit Growing', 'Origin and History', 'Soil and Situation', 'The Plum', 'Insect Pests of the Plum and Damson', 'Diseases of Plums and Damsons', 'Descriptive List of Varieties', 'Cooking Plums', etcetera. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly hard-to-come-by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition - complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on fruit growing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447489382

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THE PLUM (Prunus domestica)

ORIGIN AND HISTORY

The plum is a member of the prunus family, to which the peach, almond, apricot, and cherry belong. Several varieties of the wild plum, including the sloe and bullace, are to be found growing in our woods and hedgerows, but there is a vast difference between these and the many varieties of cultivated plum introduced into this country from Italy and Flanders, early in the sixteenth century.

SOIL AND SITUATION

Plums are nitrogen lovers and in general do well on soils which produce strong growth in trees. Rich garden soil, old hop gardens, loams of the brick-earth type, all these, provided they are well but not excessively drained, will grow good plum trees. In some districts plums do well on stiffish loams over a chalk subsoil, and on chalky loams over a clay subsoil. In other districts they appear to do equally well on acid soils containing a fair proportion of sand and fine silt. In fact, so long as they are not planted on the most extreme forms of clay, sand, or chalk, plums can be made to do well on almost any well-drained soil, provided the soil is kept well cultivated and the trees are given plenty of nitrogenous manure.

On high open land they are less liable to frost damage when in blossom, but need shelter from the east winds. On low land, however sheltered they may be from the wind, they are always liable to frost damage in April. Wall trees may be artificially sheltered by some form of protective covering as recommended for peach trees (page 105).

FORM OF TREE

The plum, like the cherry, produces fruit spurs freely on one-and two-year-old wood. Hence the best form is that in which plenty of new shoots can be allowed to grow full length every year without unduly crowding the tree. Since there is no definitely dwarfing rootstock for plums or cherries, as there is in the case of apples, a plum or cherry tree, whether budded, grafted, or on its own roots, will always tend to make rather a bigger tree than is really suitable for the artificial forms. The bush, half-standard and standard are the most suitable forms where large yields and regular cropping is required. Where fruit size and quality are the first consideration, as in the case of Coe’s Golden Drop, Kirke’s Blue and other