plum

The European plum is a hardy native fruit tree and survives the DACH lowland winter outdoors without protection; only young trees you wrap on the trunk with hessian or coconut matting against frost cracks and mulch the base with leaves. Place container plums against a sheltered house wall and pack the container in horticultural fleece, and in late frost during flowering, throw an airy fleece over the open blossoms at night so that the harvest does not fail.

The most reliable method to propagate a plum true to variety is grafting onto a suitable rootstock. Suitable rootstocks are St. Julien A (medium vigour, frost-tolerant, for many soil types) or myrobalan (vigorous growth, also for heavy soils). For budding in summer, cut scions in July or August from strong, one-year shoots of the mother tree. The bark of the rootstock then lifts well, so you can insert the bud with a T-cut. Cut only the bark, without injuring the green cambium underneath. For whip-and-tongue grafting in spring (February to April, as soon as the sap of the rootstock rises but the scion buds are still dormant), cut the scions as early as January, store them cool and dark and then join them to a rootstock of the same diameter. Secure all cut surfaces immediately with grafting tape. Tools must be sharp and clean.

Hardwood cuttings are an alternative method, which comes into question mainly for old, own-rooted varieties such as the Hauszwetschge (a traditional domestic plum). After leaf fall in autumn (October to November), cut shoots of the current year into pieces about 15 to 20 cm long, each with a slanting cut directly below a bud. Insert the cuttings two thirds deep into a loose, sandy substrate and place them in a frost-protected, semi-shaded spot over the winter. The rooting rate is lower with Prunus domestica than with other stone fruit species and can vary greatly by variety. Plan for more cuttings than the plants you need.

On suckers: with grafted trees, which is the usual case in the home garden, the shoots from the root area almost always come from the rootstock and do not carry the variety of the mother tree. So remove such suckers and do not use them for propagation. It is different only with truly own-rooted trees (for example a Hauszwetschge standing on its own roots): there the suckers are true to variety and used to be separated deliberately for propagation. If in doubt you do not know whether your tree is grafted or own-rooted. In that case do not rely on suckers, but on grafting.