How To Harvest Plums

A plum or gage is a fruit which can be eaten fresh after picking. This can also be dried and eaten as dried plum or commonly known as prune. A plum fruit is sweet and juicy. It can also be used in making jams for filling. You can also preserve this and make pickled plums. This is good for your health because it contains antioxidants.

Prune kernel oil is another product that you can get from plum. This is also rich in fiber which is best for your digestion. A plum fruit has different sizes and colors. There are red, white, green and yellow plums.

The weather should not be too dry or too wet for the plum tree for you to be able to pick good plum fruits. If it’s too wet or the fruit becomes overripe, fungi will develop on it. If that happens, you will not be able to eat the fruit anymore. If the weather is too hot, plum fruits will fall from the tree even if these are not yet ripe.

After planting a plum tree, it usually takes four years before it will start bearing plum fruit. The tree can grow up to twenty feet high. Plum fruits are usually harvested when spring season ends up to the time when summer season ends. If you have a plum tree in your garden you need to make sure that you pick the fruits on the right time so you can eat these or produce other products from these.

Here are the steps on how to harvest plum.
Check if plum is ready to be picked. There are different ways to check if plum fruit is ready for harvesting. If you know what type of plum tree you have, you will be able to determine the harvesting time based on the months. European plums can be harvested about two months after summer. Japanese plums can be harvested two months after winter and American plums can be harvested during summer.
You can also pick a plum fruit and check the taste. If the plum is a bit soft and the taste is sweet, then it’s ready for harvesting. You can also check if plum fruit is ripe by holding it. Press the fruit gently with your fingers. If the fruit feels soft, then it’s ready for harvesting.
Harvest plum fruits. You can start harvesting your plum fruits. Make sure to wear garden gloves when picking fruits. To pick the fruits, twist the fruit gently so that you can remove it from the stem. If the fruit is ripe, this will easily snap off the stem.
Put plum fruits in the container. Put plum fruits in a paper bag or any container. If there are rotten fruits, make sure to remove these immediately from the container so that these will not damage the other fruits.
Put the ripe plums in the refrigerator so these can stay longer. If you were able to get plum fruits that are not yet ripe, place these in a paper bag and put these on a cabinet or dark place so these will continue to ripen.