I’ve got plenty of bushes but there are precious little of the plums. I nearly removed the row a few times because they don’t produce much. Maybe they taste better in other locations because I’m just not understanding why they are so popular. I’ve heard of fights over beach plums in the locations they grow natively which leaves me wondering where I went wrong with mine. If anyone ever had some really good ones maybe I can pick up some scion wood and graft these over.
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I’ve only tasted fruit from one wild beach plum. I would never call it delicious and some would call it awful but I find them palatable enough to eat a few. Also that particular tree has fruit every year, at least it did the 3 yrs I visited it. I have found others that had no fruit so they may not all fruit yearly. I also noticed that there were no signs of insects or disease.
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Traditions run deep with Beach plum bushes and where they are. It’s not my favorite, but some folks love it and go forage for them every 3 years which seems to be their best fruiting. I worked with someone in a kitchen and he would go to his secret spot and get them and also poison ivy. And cook them down and give them out as presents. Many over the counter Beach Plum Jelly usually is fake very little Beach Plum in them.
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I swore nothing would get me to buy another plant this season. Then you had to post that link. Great prices and delivery. The owner literally drove to my house and dropped them off. I had requested a weekend pickup time twice and we couldn’t agree on a time so he did the delivery on his way out of town.
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Hahahahha! I don’t know how many times I’ve told myself the same thing but for $5 each for a two foot beach plum I could not resist. Sounds like you got an even better deal with a personal delivery. I paid $12 total including shipping of 2 beach plums. 
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Beach plums are fine but the jelly that is made is quality and not quantity. I’ve considered removing them many times but I did leave a row or two of them.
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I visited a wild beach plum that I have eaten fruit from in the past. It was located by the beach in a park. It’s gone. The grass around it was tall and I don’t like ticks so I didn’t examine the spot closely. Perhaps a maintenance person cut it down. Sad since it produced more fruit than others I have found. I’ll check the spot again in the winter.
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Updated photos of my Beach plums as summer nears its end. They started out just a few inches high. They look pretty good after one summer. Probably will pot up and observe them another year in pots before giving them dirt space out at my property.
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Clark is it safe to assume they grow similar to rabbiteye blueberry bushes in size and depth? 7 feet high max it seems. I may just add a row in my blueberry patch and give them a row.
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A few of my BP are staring to ripen. I find the fruit kind of bland, a bit sweet, and a little astringency in the skin.
One nifty thing is that one of my plants is ripening golden fruit!
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Zazlev,
Yes my largest is 6 1/2 feet tall.
Jesse,
Golds and purple are relatively common with the golden fruit being the more rare of the two. The differences in ripening times, large pits, small fruits these bushes are known for keep a fruit grower guessing. Here are some pictures from today but keep in mind some of my fruit was ripe a month ago. I’ve eaten these fresh this year.
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Here’s mine, holding a few gold ones in my hand which are a bit sweeter than the purple type on the bush.
I am please that the first two bushes seem to be ripening their crop pretty uniformly, I will be able to pick these all at once.
A few other bushes are a week or two behind the early ones shown. Not quite enough to justify processing this year unless I pick at a friend’s bp patch…
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Beach plums are looking good JesseS! They are smaller than people think they would be so I’m not sure I would recommend growing them unless like us you have extra land you don’t necessarily need for high production crops. Apprehensively I leave mine as a pet project. I grow many things like buffalo berries that I do for knowledge and health benefits more so than production.
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That jives with the literature: the rare yellow ones are supposed to taste the best.
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Matt,
Cornell was who got me interested in these back in 2006 when they began encouraging many farms to grow them via their website Beach Plum (Prunus maritima): Small farm sustainability through crop diversification and value-added products.. I planted a few test plants initially to determine if they could withstand Kansas summers, winters, heavy rainfall and droughts that are common here. Planted my main crop which consisted of a couple of rows about 6-7 years ago. Would love to get a hold of their best scion wood. They were growing them at least several years prior to that. Updates - Beach Plum: Small farm sustainability through crop diversification and value-added products.. I was fascinated with their work! The really rare ones are red beach plums is my understanding. The yellow are definately sweeter and occur much less often. I thought the red were unripe but several sources a red when ripe type exists. The video on the page is about a half hour long but worth watching if your interested in beach plums. I’ve since removed many bushes due to low production in our area but did keep one row of beach plums. Prunus besseyi and prunus tomentoso had a similar fate at my farm where I grew many rows and determined long term canker would be a problem for them and taste and fruit to pulp ratio did not justify the room I devoted to them. Carmine jewel cherries are such a better use of space it’s hard for me to encourage anyone to grow other stone fruits. I will quickly say beach plums have many redeeming qualities such as they are relatively insect free and bloom late which avoids frosts. In areas where they grow naturally I certainly see why they are popular.
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When I say my production is not great that should be followed by showing you what production looks like at Cornell. Here are a couple of their beach plum pictures from their orchard Updates - Beach Plum: Small farm sustainability through crop diversification and value-added products.
I was expecting my production to be similar to theirs. I think in time scion wood may be available from them or other sources which is why I left my row in place. Considering grafting over to one or two varieties so they all ripen at the same time which might change everything. Beach plums productivity has been improved drastically by the growers.
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I saw a pair of trees in Maryland that were loaded with fruit.
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If scion wood is available from those you saw Matt that would be the way to go.
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First harvest, a few more bushes look like they will need another week. Pictured with a few of my last South Dakota plums, these will be made into elderberry/plum jam by my Mom in law.
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Jesse-- Beautiful plums.
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