Everything You Need to Know About the Santa Rosa Plum Tree
If you have the yard space, it’s always a great idea to invest in planting a few fruit trees. Not only will you get delicious fruit when it is in season but it also beautifies your yard and helps the environment. A versatile and easy to grow fruit tree is the Santa Rosa (Prunus salicina “Santa Rosa”) plum tree. The Santa Rosa plum tree is a Japanese variety that was first introduced to California in 1906. This tree in particular is a favorite amongst avid gardeners because when in its flowering stages, it blooms beautiful white spring blossoms that are a sight to behold. In addition to its aesthetic appeal, it produces decadent, juicy, red fruits that are also beautiful, decorative and delicious!
Why choose the Santa Rosa Plum tree?
Santa Rosa plums are medium to slightly large fruits that can be eaten straight of the tree. They are also a perfect addition to fruit salads and fruit snack plates. They are versatile fruits and can be used in different ways and stored by canning and preserving, freezing and dehydrating them (for dried fruit slices).
Santa Rosa plums also make rich jams. After a bountiful harvest, you can store your excess plums for use later in the year and products made with Santa Rosa plums make wonderful gifts. Santa Rosa plums have a soft to firm texture and sweet flavor with a tangy kick which can be easily incorporated into many different recipes.
Another great characteristic of the Santa Rosa plum tree is that it is self-pollinating. This means that you just need one tree to gain fruits. It can also be grown as a ‘dwarf’ tree which is ideal for places where space is limited.
How to plant a Santa Rosa Plum tree
As previously mentioned, you can simply plant one tree and be able to yield a nice amount of fruit. However, planting more, using a pollinator and mixing with other plum varieties can produce a bigger harvest. The Santa Rosa plum tree typically takes about 3 to 5 years to produce fruits. It flowers in May and is ready for harvest in late July and is considered to be an early producing fruit and are harvested earlier than other varieties.
To plant a Santa Rosa plum tree, you need well drained, loamy soil. It also requires as much hours of sunlight as possible (6- 8 hrs) and are great to plant in open areas. These trees are heat resistant and thrive well in warm weather conditions and climates (similar to peaches). When setting multiple plantings, they should be spaced approximately 12 to 15 feet apart. The Santa Rosa plum tree must be watered once a week on a regular schedule and more often during dry spells or periods of drought. It is a hardy tree and once properly watered, they can get by with little maintenance. You can prune your Santa Rosa plum tree at least once a year. Pruning in an open center shape is recommended. The ideal time for this task is in the winter months when the tree is dormant. They are also a deciduous variety and shed their leaves once a year.
Caring for your Santa Rosa plum tree
Apart from pruning, you can also boost the health of your Santa Rosa tree by applying fertilizer before new growth occurs at the start of spring. Without proper maintenance, or when grown on a large commercial scale, the tree can be susceptible to pests and diseases. Some issues that may affect the Santa Rosa plum variety are:
- Plum leaf scald
- Bacterial diseases
- Scales
- Borers
- Mites
- Aphids
- Leaf spots
- Rot
Simple maintenance and preventative measures can help to deter, reduce or avoid the occurrence of these issues by keeping up the following practices:
- Yearly pruning
- Use fertilizer
- Keep the area under and around the tree free from fallen debris such as leaves, rotting fruit and broken twigs
- If faced with an aphid or mite problem, a natural solution can be to introduce ladybugs to your garden (once it is legal to do so)
- Use insecticides and anti-fungal sprays as advised by a professional nursery or fruit tree expert
How to harvest your Santa Rosa Plum tree
When harvest time rolls around in the latter portion or end of July, here is how you can identify if your tree is ready for the harvest:
- Gently squeeze a fruit, if the skin gives a little bit it is ready to be picked
- If you are using plums for cooking, they should be picked when they are still on the firmer side and left to ripen post-harvest
- Ripe plums are easily plucked from stems with little effort
- You may also notice fruits easily dropping when the wind blows or branches are shaken, this means there is ripe fruit present
When Santa Rosa plums are in season, they are a common staple at farmers markets. If you have an abundant harvest you can consider selling at a farmer’s market or producing jams and other food items made from Santa Rosa plums to made a little extra cash on the side and avoid wastage of fruits.
Conclusion
Santa Rosa plum trees can bear fruit for many years without experiencing issues such as pests or disease once placed in the ideal soil and are regularly maintained. Maintenance is easy and straightforward. If you have multiple trees, you may need to spend more time to tend to them all but it is worth the effort. Some people use Santa Rosa plum trees as hedging, because their spring blossoms are so aesthetically pleasing!
