Opal Plum Trees

Opal Plum Trees: Eating, Early Season

Opal produces bite-sized, deliciously sweet dessert plums in a great colour range, from sunshine yellow to deep purple on the same fruit. The pale yellow flesh has a signature Greengage flavour.

They crop extremely early, in a good year your first fruit is ready at the end of July.
Because they ripen so early, Opals do best in the sunnier South of England, and reward being planted in a south facing spot, perhaps trained against a south facing wall as a fan.

Browse our range of plum trees, other mini patio trees, or all our fruit trees.

Delivery season: Bareroot plants are delivered in late Autumn to Spring, about November-March inclusive. Pot grown plants, year round. 

Features:

• Sold as a bareroot normal tree, or a potted Mini Patio tree.
• Self-fertile, Pollination Group C
• Early cropper, from late July to early August
• Eating, sweet greengage flavour
• Reassuringly regular harvest size 
• Bareroot delivery: Nov-March
• Pot grown delivery & Mini patio form: Year round
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Opal Plum Pollination 

Your tree is reliably self-fertile; a pollination partner like Coe's Golden Drop (crops later) or Rivers Early Prolific (crops earlier) is not strictly necessary, but may improve the harvest. 

Plum trees are natives of a warmer climate and need some special consideration to encourage strong growth, resistance to disease and bumper crops. They are only pruned in summer, to reduce the risk of silver leaf disease.

Our plum trees are on St Julien A rootstocks, including the mini patio version, known as Wonder Trees, which use a special, high graft to control their vigour.

Did You Know? 

Sweden's climate (in the south), is perfect for breeding hardy plants that will succeed in Northern Europe. Opal is one of many superb creations of the Horticultural Research Stations in Alnarp and Balsgard, near Sweden's southern tip.
It was crossed in the 1920's from two classic plum trees, the robust English Early Favourite and very tasty French Oullins Golden Gage.

Plum Tree Delivery Shapes:

Most of our fruit trees are delivered in up to 3 shapes (maiden, bush, and half standard), and you can buy selected varieties as potted mini patio trees: scroll up to see what's in stock. 

Maiden: Unbranched tree, the most basic starting size, which you can train into fans, or the forms below (apart from mini patio trees).
Bush: Freestanding tree with a short trunk about 60cm tall. It will grow to about 3m. Ideal for small gardens.
Half-Standard: A freestanding form with a trunk about 120cm tall. It will grow into a full sized, "normal" tree, about 4m. Ideal for orchards, easy to mow underneath.

Mini Patio Tree: Only sold pot-grown, these use a dwarfing rootstock to drastically reduce the tree's vigour and restrict the mature size. They are suitable for large patio containers, and for small gardens where a normal-sized bush or half-standard form won't fit.

Guide to Fruit Tree Sizing.

7.5 to 12 litres are potted non-patio trees are not meant to be kept in pots; they will be fine for up to 12 months until planted in the ground. Keep well watered (but not soaked).

Growing Mini Patio Trees in Pots:
Dwarf trees do very well in large containers of rich potting soil. During summer, it is essential to provide consistent moisture, without overwatering, and to feed lightly. 
Change as much of the compost as you can every three years.

Prepare your site before planting:
Improving the soil helps trees establish quickly and be productive for years. Preparing weeks or months in advance gives best results: fill the planting hole back up, don't leave it open to either dry out or fill with water.

• Destroy weeds and grass,
• Dig the soil over, remove stones, then mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades, unless you are on heavy clay:
• On thick clay soil, only dig in some grit to improve drainage and raise the level a little. Then apply organic matter as a mulch over the soil as normal.

Spacing plum trees

• Freestanding bushes: 15-18 feet (5-6m) between trees and rows.
• Freestanding half-standards: 18-30 feet (6-10m) between trees and rows.

In general, allow 1 more metre between rows than between trees along the row.

• Wire-trained fans: 10-18 feet (3.5-6m) apart.

• Watch how to plant a fruit tree for a bush or half-standard.
• To grow a fan, you need to install sturdy training wires.

Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Accessories:
For bush and half standard trees, a tree planting pack, which includes a wooden support stake & rubber tie (a bamboo cane is enough support for a maiden), and a biodegradable mulch mat, with pegs, to preserve soil moisture stops and prevent weeds.

We strongly recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all transplanted trees.

Winter wash and greasebands are effective, organic pest prevention.