The Latest Cultivation Techniques and Methods Tutorial for Plum Trees

The plum is the fruit of the plum tree, a plant in the Rosaceae family, also known as Jiayingzi, Bulin, plum, Yuhuang plum, and mountain plum. It ripens between July and August, plump and round, delicate and translucent, beautiful in form, and sweet in taste. It is one of people's favorite fruits and is widely cultivated around the world. Plums are sour in taste and can promote the secretion of gastric acid and digestive enzymes, and can also promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, thereby improving appetite and aiding digestion, and are especially effective for those with insufficient gastric acid, post-meal bloating, and constipation. Amino acids such as serine, glycine, proline, and glutamine in fresh plum flesh have a diuretic and swelling-reducing effect, and have an auxiliary therapeutic effect on cirrhosis. Plums contain a variety of nutrients and have the effect of beautifying the face and smoothing the skin. The antioxidant content in plums is astonishingly high, making them worthy of being called a “super fruit” for anti-aging and disease prevention.

Morphological Characteristics of the Plum Tree

A deciduous tree, 9-12 m tall, with a broad round crown and grayish-brown bark that is uneven. Old branches are purplish-brown or reddish-brown, hairless; young branches are yellow-red, hairless. Winter buds are ovoid, red-purple, with several imbricate scales, usually hairless, rarely with extremely sparse hairs on the scale edges.

1. Leaves

Leaves are oblong-obovate or long elliptic, rarely oblong-ovate, 6-8 (-12) cm long and 3-5 cm wide, with a gradually pointed, acute, or short caudate apex, a cuneate base, and rounded blunt double serrations along the margin, often mixed with single serrations, with glands on the tooth tips when young. The upper surface is dark green and glossy. There are 6-10 pairs of lateral veins that do not reach the leaf margin and form a 45° angle with the midrib. Both surfaces are hairless, sometimes with sparse pubescence along the midrib below or bearded hairs in the vein axils. Stipules are membranous, linear, with a gradually pointed apex and glandular margins, falling early. The petiole is 1-2 cm long, usually hairless, with 2 glands at the apex or none, and sometimes glands on the margin at the leaf base.

2. Flowers

Flowers usually grow in clusters of 3, with pedicels 1-2 cm long, usually hairless. The flower diameter is 1.5-2.2 cm. The hypanthium is campanulate, and the sepals are oblong-ovate, about 5 mm long, with an acute or rounded-obtuse apex and sparse teeth along the margin, nearly equal in length to the hypanthium. The outer surfaces of the hypanthium and sepals are both hairless, while the inner surface is sparsely pubescent at the base of the hypanthium. The petals are white, oblong-obovate, with an erose apex and a cuneate base, with distinct purple vein lines, a short claw, and attached to the margin of the hypanthium, 2-3 times longer than the hypanthium. Stamens are numerous, with filaments of unequal length arranged in 2 irregular whorls, shorter than the petals. There is 1 pistil, with a discoid stigma, and the style is slightly longer than the stamens.

3. Fruit

A drupe, spherical, ovoid, or nearly conical, 3.5-5 cm in diameter, up to 7 cm in cultivated varieties, yellow or red, sometimes green or purple, with a sunken stem cavity, a slightly pointed apex, a longitudinal groove at the base, and covered with a waxy bloom. The stone is ovoid or oblong and wrinkled. The flowering period is April, and the fruiting period is July-August.

Growing Environment of the Plum Tree

It has strong adaptability to climate. As long as the soil layer is relatively deep and has a certain level of fertility, it can be planted in any soil type. It has relatively high requirements for air and soil moisture and is extremely intolerant of waterlogging. Poor drainage in an orchard often causes root rot, poor growth, or susceptibility to various diseases. It is advisable to choose a site with loose soil, good soil aeration and drainage, deep soil layers, and a low groundwater level for orchard establishment.