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After apples, plums
are the next most widely grown fruit, for they
have both dessert and culinary uses. Plums do
not keep for long but, by planting for succession,
they may be enjoyed from late July until the end
of October. Plums are the first fruits to bloom
and in frost-troubled gardens only those which
bloom late should be grown. Amongst those which
bloom late are the following: Czar, Belle de Louvain,
Marjorie’s Seedling, Severn Cross and Late
Transparent Gage.
The bush or standard tree suits the plum best
and it will come quickly into bearing, whilst
it does not require the same degree of pruning
attention as either the apple or pear. The plum
fruits mostly on the new wood and, apart from
the removal of any dead wood, excessive pruning
must be avoided. Stone fruits suffer from ‘bleeding’,
which weakens the tree and enables disease, especially
silver leaf, to enter where cuts or wounds have
been made. By government order, all pruning of
plums and gages must be completed in Britain by
mid-July in order to give the cuts time to ‘gum’
before winter, as they will not do so when the
weather becomes cold.
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