How to grow gages

Gages are a type of plum, popular for their deliciously honey-sweet fruits, usually pale dusky green or golden. Gages – and plums generally – are easy to grow and a delight in any garden. They produce heavy crops of sweet, juicy green or yellow fruits in late summer, as well as pretty blossom in early spring, which attracts bees and other pollinators. There are lots of delicious varieties of gage to choose from, including traditional varieties local to several regions of the UK.

Gages are usually either green or yellow – both are deliciously sweet and juicy, but the latter are highly ornamental too. There are many varieties to choose from, most providing excellent levels of sweetness and juiciness, and bountiful harvests, ripening either early, mid- or late season. In colder or northern locations, consider a late-flowering variety such as ‘Guthrie’s Late Green’ or ‘Oullins Gage’, to avoid damage to the blossom, which can reduce the crop. Varieties with an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) are recommended by our RHS fruit experts, as they performed well in trials – see our list of AGM fruit and veg.

A few varieties are dual purpose (dessert and culinary), such as ‘Brandy Gage’, which is ideal if you only have room for one tree, so you can get maximum use from your crop. It’s also worth looking for traditional local varieties that would be suited to your individual growing conditions, such as ‘Cambridge Gage’, ‘Merton Gage’ (from London) or ‘Guthrie’s Late Green’ (from Scotland). Many gages also have characterful old names that add an extra element to your choice – who could resist ‘Coe’s Golden Drop’ or ‘Ingall’s Grimoldby Greengage’?

If you visit any of the RHS gardens, you’ll find many fruit trees, including plums and gages, grown in various ways. So you can compare different varieties and pick up useful growing tips.

• ‘Pixy’ – semi-dwarfing, suitable for cordon or semi-dwarf bush tree, up to 3–4m (10–12ft) tall

• ‘VVA-1’ – semi-dwarfing, good winter hardiness, improved fruit size and crop size, 3–4m (10–12ft) tall

• ‘St Julian A’ – semi-vigorous, widely used, suited to a wide range of soil conditions, 4.5–5m (14–15ft) tall

• ‘Wavit’ – semi-vigorous, suits most soil conditions, some chalk tolerance, 4–4.5m (12–14ft) tall

• ‘Brompton’ – vigorous, for large free-standing trees over 4.5m (15ft) tall

• How to plant trees

• Step-by-step guide to planting a tree

• Guide to growing trees 

• Video guide to planting containerised trees

• Video guide to planting a tree

Like all plums, gages need little maintenance to produce a reliable crop, but you can greatly increase your harvest by watering and feeding at the right times. Protect blossom from late frosts if possible and thin out heavy crops to avoid branches breaking under the weight.

Gages should be pruned annually to keep them in good shape, healthy and productive:

• Young trees should be pruned after buds open in early spring

• Established trees should be pruned in summer

• Avoid pruning all types of plum trees during the dormant season or in mid- to late autumn, to minimise the risk of infection from silver leaf disease and bacterial canker 

See our guide to pruning plums for full details of how to train and prune trees into the shapes described below.

Free-standing trees are best pruned to form either an open-centred bush tree or a smaller pyramid tree:

• Bush trees have a trunk about 75cm (2½ft) tall, then three or four branches radiating out at the top to create an open-centred goblet shape

• Pyramid trees are similar to bush trees, but retain their central shoot (leader), so they don’t have the open centre of bush trees. The branches start lower down, only 40–50cm (15–20in) from the ground, and get gradually shorter further up the tree, to create a pyramid shape

Gages can also be trained flat against a wall or fence. This is a good option if space is tight or if you want to grow several fruit trees. Trees can be bought ready-trained, partly trained or untrained, depending on how much work you want to do. The two most suitable shapes for gages are:

• Fans – both attractive and productive, these have a short trunk topped with a flat fan of radiating branches. Fans need regular pruning twice a year, in early summer and after fruiting, which is relatively straightforward.

• Cordons – these are very compact, single-stemmed trees with short side-shoots, ideal for small spaces and containers. As there are no truly dwarfing rootstocks for gages or plums, this method is less successful than with apples and pears. However, it can work with less vigorous varieties on semi-dwarfing ‘Pixy’ or ‘VVA-1’ rootstock. 

Both gages and plums are generally hardy, healthy and easy to grow, but several pests, diseases and weather conditions can cause problems, including:

• Frost damage to blossom – cover smaller trees with fleece if late frost is forecast when in blossom, or bring containerised trees indoors. Avoid planting in sites prone to late frosts. See our guide to protecting fruit from frost

• Poor harvests – late frosts (see above) and spring storms can damage blossom and deter pollinators. Lack of water can cause young fruits to be shed. Trees may also crop more lightly in alternate years – see our advice on biennial bearing. Fruits may be eaten by birds and wasps – it may be possible protect fruit with bird netting on smaller, trained trees, but larger trees usually produce such generous crops that there should be plenty for wildlife too

• Rotting fruit – brown rot is widespread in wet summers. Remove rotting fruit to prevent spores spreading

• Mis-shapen and/or maggoty fruits – small pinkish caterpillars of the plum moth may be found in the centre of some early ripening fruits, which may look slightly distorted. Later fruits are less likely to be affected

• Damaged leaves – silver leaf causes silvery leaves and dieback of branches. Remove affected branches as soon as possible. Brown spots or small holes in leaves are a sign of bacterial canker, along with dieback of shoots – remove affected growth.