The best-tasting plums are picked right off your own tree and eaten while juicy and ripe. Depending upon the size of the tree planted, plums begin producing fruit 4 to 6 years after planting and produce for around 20 years. I have a Santa Rosa plum that faithfully produces an abundant crop each summer.

Plums belong to the genus Prunus and are called stone fruits because of their hard, stony pits. Nectarines, peaches, apricots and cherries are also stone fruits. Some states are too cold to grow many varieties of stone fruits; while other states, such as Arizona, are too warm to break their rest period to set buds and produce fruit.

In Yuma, varieties needing 300-350 chill hours will produce fruit. Chill hours are counted between Nov. 1 and Feb. 15 and are the hours when the temperature is

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