European Plum

**Siting:** Grow in fertile, moist, well-drained soil in full sun, sheltered from chemical sprays; trees mature to 10-20 feet tall and wide, bearing solitary white flowers before leaf-out in spring, and this is the latest-blooming type of plum, making it well suited to northern climates.

**Pollination:** European plums are largely self-pollinating, but planting two different varieties improves fruit set, except mirabelle types, which produce little pollen and cannot reliably pollinate others; mature trees are usually spaced about 20 feet apart.

Plums are susceptible to a range of viral, fungal, and bacterial diseases affecting fruit and leaves, along with powdery mildew, rusts, and brown rot. The codling moth is the main insect pest, with webworms, mites, and borers also causing damage.

Fruit ripens in fall, typically in September, forming fleshy drupes 2-3 inches across with blue to black skin and a single stone inside.

**Culinary:** European plum is grown primarily for its fruit, especially for drying into prunes thanks to its high sugar content, with production centered on the U.S. west coast and Great Lakes region; the fruit can also be eaten fresh, cooked into jams and compotes, or baked into pastries.

**Ornamental:** Its showy white spring flowers and wildlife value make it useful in butterfly and pollinator gardens, and the tree serves as a larval host plant for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.

European plum traces its origin to the region around the Caucasus and Caspian Sea, extending into Turkey, with cultivation dating back at least 2,000 years. It is no longer known to grow wild and exists only in cultivation today.