Tree fruit
Damson
Prunus domestica subsp. domestica
Timings for your region
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Never sown — bare-root plants go straight into the bed.
The harvest times are for an established plant — the first crop comes after 3–4 years.
Plantingmid October – late November
Harvestmid August – late September
Practical tip
‘Jojo’ is the first fully sharka-resistant variety — on a tree meant to stand for thirty years that is the single strongest argument there is. Damsons flower later than apricots and peaches, so late frost takes the crop far less often.
Origin & history
The damson is an old cultivated form of the plum, descended from a cross between blackthorn and cherry plum somewhere between the Caucasus and Asia Minor. Its German name goes back through the Latin prunum damascenum to Damascus; the Romans carried it over the Alps. The Hauszwetschge is not a bred variety in the modern sense but a landrace passed on from root suckers for centuries — which is why old farmyards carry whole rows of genetically identical trees. What separates it from a plum is the elongated shape, the firmer flesh and the stone that comes away clean.
Varieties
The ripening sequence is the real criterion. “Cacaks Schöne” starts in the second half of August with large, soft fruit; the Hauszwetschge follows in September with smaller, firmer and far more aromatic ones — that is the variety for a Zwetschgenkuchen and for drying. Virus-tested clones of it, such as “Wolff” or “Schüfer”, crop more evenly than a random root sucker from next door. Ask about the rootstock as well: St. Julien A is moderately vigorous and copes with heavy ground, while VVA-1 stays smaller and crops earlier but demands water and a permanent stake.
Care
Plant bare-root in autumn, graft union above the soil, with a stake that will last the first few years. Damsons throw root suckers: they come from the rootstock, never fruit, and are torn off at the base rather than mown, or they come back twice as thick. Prune in summer after harvest — stone fruit closes its cuts during the growing season, while a winter cut leaves it prone to gumming. Take out the steep water shoots while you are there and keep the crown open. In a heavy year thin the fruit to roughly five centimetres apart: it keeps the size up and stops a loaded branch tearing out under the weight.
What can go wrong
Sharka is the one thing that decides the thirty years such a tree is meant to stand: a virus carried from tree to tree by aphids, and nothing done to the tree itself touches it. You see it as pale rings in the foliage and sunken rings on the skin; the flesh beneath goes rubbery and the fruit drops early. The answer lies entirely in the choice of variety — the Hohenheim Jo series, virus-tested clones — and in clean nursery stock. Next to that stands the plum sawfly: its larva bores into the young fruit, which falls in June with a wet hole in it. Gather the windfalls weekly, or the larva pupates in the soil and is back next spring.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Damsons do not ripen evenly; over two or three weeks you go through the tree three or four times. A fruit is ready when it gives at the stalk and the bluish bloom on the skin is unbroken — do not rub that off, with it they keep one to two weeks in the fridge. They sweeten on the tree, not in the bowl. For a cake, pick two days before full ripeness so the halves hold their shape instead of collapsing; for Mus and for drying take the overripe ones. The stone comes away cleanly if you cut along the seam and twist the halves against each other. Halved and dried at 60 to 70 degrees they keep for a year.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.