How to Grow Plum Trees in Texas

Growing plums successfully in Texas begins with selecting the right varieties of plum trees for the area where you live. Use at least two small-fruited, Japanese-hybrid or Japanese varieties of plums for pollination. Choose Gulfgold in South Texas, Bruce for any part of Texas except the far south and Ozark Premier in north, west or central Texas.

Soil testing kit

Rototiller

Shovel

Lime

Sulfur

Compost

Tape measure

Knife

Pruning shears

Wood chips

Fertilizer

Test soil in and around planting site for fertility, nutrients and soil pH with a soil testing kit from a garden center or nursery. Your county extension office has kits and can test soil samples for a small fee. Select a planting site with well-drained soil and exposure to full sun, especially early morning sun to dry the dew from the leaves and lessen or prevent disease, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

Till soil deeply in the planting area with a rototiller or shovel. Add amendments such as lime, sulfur -- to adjust soil pH -- and compost, mixing them into the soil well.

Remove strings or tags on roots or the trunk. Soak the roots of the plum tree in water for no more than one hour before planting. Trim broken roots, if any.

Measure the width of the roots and the height from roots to soil line, a ring of gray, on the trunk.

Dig hole to measured height and 1 1/2 to 2 times wider than the width of the roots. Make the hole 2 to 3 inches shallower in poorly drained Texas clay soil. Roughen the sides with the shovel. Form a packed mound of soil in the middle of hole.

Set plum tree on top of mound and spread roots out, draping them down the sides. Backfill the hole about halfway with the original soil. Tamp down firm and finish filling the hole. Make a moat around the trunk for watering. Space plum trees 20 feet apart.

Water around the tree well to settle the soil. Give the trees water every four days for the first two weeks after planting. Move it up by one day to five days for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, move it up one day each time until you're giving the tree water every 10 to 20 days. Wet the soil 12 to 18 inches deep at each watering.

Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost or wood chips around the tree, but not too close to the tree trunk. Spread the mulch out in no less than a 3-foot diameter circle around the tree and expand to the edge of the tree's canopy as it grows.

Spread 1 cup of a complete fertilizer, such as 15-5-10, or a mixture recommended by soil test results, in April a year after planting, once the leaves appear in the spring. Apply it to the ground at the edge of the canopy. Apply 2 cups during the second year of growth.

Spray a fruit tree fungicide or insecticide following the directions on the label to control insects and diseases such as plum curculio, scab and brown rot.

Plant and purchase dormant plum trees between December and February in Texas.

Build raised beds from edging timber or railroad ties measuring 8 to 10 feet across with a 6- to 12-inch-high mound of soil to form the base of the bed in areas with poorly drained soils.

Push a metal rod into the soil until you can't go any further, then measure the amount of rod covered to get the irrigation depth.

In the summer, turn on drip irrigation systems one day a week for 10 to 12 hours a day.

The alkaline soils in west, central and south Texas commonly lack iron and need iron chelate sprinkled onto the soil, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

Never apply fertilizer containing phosphorous if soil pH is above 7.5 or the soil is deficient in iron.