Asian Plum Trees

Asian plums are tasty little juice bombs! High summer - biting into a plum so tangy/sweet and the juice running down your arm - this is the essence of the Asian plum experience.

These trees were originally introduced from Japan, China, and Korea, where they were bred to produce lots of succulent juice used to make the popular plum sauces and plum wines that are featured in many kinds of Asian foods. Once introduced into the US in the late 1800's, they were tapped by famed American plant breeder Luther Burbank to create crosses with wild American plums - producing fruit that was crunchy and more firm, but still had the powerful flavor and juiciness that is the hallmark of Asian plums. Modern plant breeder Floyd Zaiger used these crosses as the basis of his newer introductions - pluots, apriums, and more - to create the interspecific crosses that add so much variety and unique flavor to the plum family tree!

Asian plums are a great choice for the beginner. They are easy to grow, and so precocious (early to start bearing), that they often fruit in the nursery row. A few are self fertile, although many still require a pollinizing partner to set fruit, and even the self-fertile varieties will produce larger yields when there is a pollinizer nearby.