Beach Plum

(Prunus maritima)

Description

Beach Plum is a medium-sized shrub, growing around 5-10’ tall. They can be quite bushy, but can be pruned to any size or shape that you like. It produces an abundance of small white and yellow flowers that develop into a tremendous crop of fruit. The fruit is a small plum, about the size of a grape, beginning green and ripening into a dark purple.

The plums can be eaten fresh out of hand and also make excellent jams and pies, though due to their small size they can be a lot of work to pit without a pitting tool. For those without the time or equipment for efficient pitting, wines are the best way to use beach plums is to mash them up into a pulp and ferment them into wine. After the must has fermented for a week or two, you can strain out the pulp and pits, feed them to chickens if you like or plant them out, and pour the partially-fermented liquid into a carboy to finish off the brewing.

Beach Plums are not self-fertile, so multiple are required for pollination and fruit set. All our Beach Plums are grown from seed collected from healthy, highly productive parents in RI and grown out in our air prune beds for maximum root health and transplantability. First year plants are about 4-10 inches tall, and Second year plants are about 10-20 inches tall.

Site Preference

Beach plums are salt-tolerant and can be grown in sandy or more dense soils, but like good drainage. They prefer full sun for maximum yield.

Hardiness

Zone 4