Plum

Like peaches, plums are a temperate-climate fruit not very well-adapted to our subtropical climate, but Florida researchers have developed special varieties that do fairly well here. Our sole plum tree, SE-A-1, is a Scarlet Beauty. Its fruit is smaller than the California masterpieces but has very good flavor. And unlike anything you will find in the grocery story, even in the organic section, SweetSong plums are grown with no toxic anything.

Plum trees are vigorous growers, benefiting from heavy pruning, and the young fruit should be aggressively thinned to produce a crop of full-flavor, full-size fruit. Like other stone fruit, plum trees are not flood-tolerant, and on low ground it should be planted on a mound.

Our Scarlet Beauty plum tree SE-A-1 was planted back in late 2014. It produced well in 2018, and in 2019, it reached commercial production.