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.
**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.
Stock availability: Items showing as 'sold out' will probably be available again next season. If you would like to reserve in advance use our enquiry form - this does not commit you to anything.
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.
Our online pollination checker lists suitable pollination partners for this variety.
More advice about pollination.
It is a 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.
Planting instructions.
Pruning instructions.
Raised by Thomas Rivers in Hertfordshire, UK, in the 1830s. Developed from an early-season French plum variety called Precoce de Tours. For some time a popular commercial plum variety in the UK. It has also been used to breed a number of other popular plum varieties, including Czar.
