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Rivers' Early Prolific plum trees

Pick: Early-season    Flowering group: 2   Self-fertile    Uses: Eat fresh | Cookery 
Rivers' Early Prolific plum tree

An attractive English plum, sometimes known as Early Rivers, or, mistakenly, as a "river plum". Rivers' Early Prolific is, as the name suggests, an early and heavy-cropping plum. Rated by the Victorian fruit enthusiast Hogg as "a great bearer, and very hardy, rarely ever missing a crop".

It is dual-purpose, but arguably better for culinary purposes. (For dessert purposes, Opal is probably better).

Rivers' Early Prolific is easy to grow and crops reliably.

Order now for delivery September 2013 onwards

Rivers' Early Prolific plum trees for sale

Mature height*Supplied asPrice**
inc. delivery		Quantity
required

Pot-grown fruit trees (Delivery start September 2013)

Medium (2.5m - 3m)2-year bush-trained - 12L pot - Pixy rootstock £39.00
Large (3m - 3.5m)2-year bush-trained - 12L pot - St.Julien rootstock £39.00

Bare-root fruit trees (Deliveries start November 2013)

Medium (2.5m - 3m)1-year - Bare-root - Pixy rootstock £33.00
Large (3m - 3.5m)1-year - Bare-root - St.Julien rootstock £32.00
Large (3m - 3.5m)2-year bush-trained - Bare-root - St.Julien rootstock £34.00
Large (3m - 3.5m)Half-standard - Bare-root - St.Julien rootstock £37.00

**All prices include delivery. We offer a discount on orders of multiple bare-root trees for delivery at the same time - this will be shown at the checkout.

Delivery period: Pot-grown trees can be delivered from September onwards. Bare-root trees can be delivered from mid-November onwards. Within those periods you can specify your preferred month of delivery during the checkout process. It is best to order as soon as you can to ensure items are reserved for you.

*Mature heights: Height shown is the approximate height of the tree when mature (after 5-10 years), not the height when supplied. See photos of trees as supplied. Actual mature heights may vary considerably dependent on your local conditions and training and pruning regime - see our Tree Height Calculator.

Fruit tree guarantee

Stock availability: Items showing as 'sold out' will probably be available again next season. Click here to be notified when we get more trees of this variety.



Alternatives to Rivers' Early Prolific plum trees

Alternative fruit trees - Edda plum trees
Early-season  (2)  
Eat | Cook 

Edda plum trees

A good quality and cold-hardy early-season purple plum from Norway.
Alternative fruit trees - Opal plum trees
Early-season  (3)  SF  
Eat 

Opal plum trees

Opal is an early plum variety with a good flavour, self-fertile and very easy to grow.
Alternative fruit trees - Czar plum trees
Mid-season  (3)  SF  
Eat | Cook 

Czar plum trees

Czar is a traditional culinary plum, one of the easiest plums trees, will even fruit on north-facing walls.




Summary features of Rivers' Early Prolific

Growing

Uses

Identification

  • Country of origin: United Kingdom
  • Period of origin: 1800 - 1849
  • Fruit colour: Blue - dark
  • Blossom colour: White
  • Leaf colour: Green

Climate



Pollination guide for Rivers' Early Prolific

Rivers' Early Prolific is in flowering group 2. Rivers' Early Prolific is self-fertile and does not need a pollination partner, although fruiting may be improved if there is a compatible tree of a different variety nearby.



How to grow Rivers' Early Prolific plum trees

Rivers' Early Prolific is unusual for a plum tree in that it grows with a slightly "pendulous" habit - somewhat reminscent of an upright weeping willow. The trunk will eventually reach the normal proportions but the branches and twigs always stay disproportionately thin.

Cropping potential is often greater than the branches can bear, so thinning of the fruit and/or branch supports may be necessary.

Like some of its offspring (e.g. Czar) Rivers' Early Prolific can also tolerate shade.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, whilst Rivers's Early Prolific crops heavily, it is not a vigorous tree, and tends to be small or average size.



Varieties with similar picking times to Rivers' Early Prolific

<== Pick slightly earlierAbout the same timePick slightly later ==>
Herman

Edda
Opal



Historical details

Rivers' Early Prolific was raised by the famous Thomas Rivers nursery in Hertfordshire, UK, in the 1830s. It was developed from an early-season French plum variety called Precoce de Tours.

It was grown commercially in the UK for a period, and has also been used to breed a number of other popular plum varieties, including Czar.



Botanical name

Prunus domestica Rivers' Early Prolific




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