How to Grow Plum (Aloo Bukhara) at Home: Chill Hours and Pots
Here is the question nobody at the nursery asks you: how cold does your winter get? A plum (Aloo Bukhara) tree needs a set number of chilly hours before it will flower, so a low chill variety can fruit in Lahore or Peshawar while a hill variety planted in Karachi just sits there, leafy and fruitless. Buy a grafted, low chill plum, plant it bare root in winter, and a first small crop in two to three years is realistic. So yes, you can grow plum at home, with the caveats below.
The essentials
- Best start: grafted plant of a low chill variety
- Years to fruit: grafted, usually two to four; seed grown, several more and unpredictable
- Pot: at least 50 cm (20 inches) wide and deep, 70 to 100 litres
- Sun: six to eight hours
- Plant: mid December to mid February, while leafless
- Harvest: May to June in the plains, later in the hills
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One clarification first: the dried Aloo Bukhara in biryani is a dried plum, covered in our dried plums buying guide, and the cooling summer drink lives in imli aloo bukhara sharbat. For prunes and the gut, see prunes vs aloo bukhara. This guide, from our Kitchen Garden section, grows the fresh fruit.
Why chill hours decide whether you get any plums
Chill hours are roughly the hours a tree spends between about 0 and 7°C in winter. The University of Arizona’s low desert fruit guide lists low chill Japanese plums such as Beauty, Gulf Gold and Methley at about 250 hours and Santa Rosa at about 300. University of Georgia figures put typical Japanese plums at around 500 to 900 hours and European types at 700 to 1,100. Swat, Murree and Kashmir plums are high chill types; they need the hills.
| Zone | Verdict | What to plant |
|---|---|---|
| Hills (Swat, Murree, Kashmir) | Plant | Almost any plum, including European types |
| Sub-humid (Islamabad, Peshawar) | Plant | Japanese plums; low and medium chill varieties |
| Punjab plains (Lahore, Faisalabad, Delhi) | Maybe | Only low chill types; ask the nursery for chill figures |
| Hot dry (Multan, Bahawalpur, Sukkur) | Maybe | Lowest chill types; heat and sunburn are real |
| Coastal (Karachi) | Skip | Winters too warm for reliable flowering |
Seed, cutting or graft: which works?
Grafting or budding onto a rootstock is how plums are sold, and the rootstock controls tree size: the RHS describes semi dwarfing stocks giving trees around 3 to 4 metres. Seed grown plums do not come true and take longer. Hardwood cuttings of some plums do root, but slowly, and you lose the rootstock’s size control. Air layering works occasionally.
| Method | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Grafted, low chill nursery plant | Plant | Fastest, known fruit, controlled size |
| Bud your own seedling | Maybe | Possible in late summer; needs good scion wood |
| Hardwood cuttings | Maybe | Hit and miss; fine as an experiment |
| Seed from a shop plum | Skip | Unknown chill need, years of waiting |
Planting a bare root plum, step by step
- Buy between mid December and mid February while the tree is leafless. Check the graft bump is solid and the roots are moist.
- Soak the roots in a bucket of water for two to three hours.
- Fill the bottom of a 70 to 100 litre pot with your mix, set the tree so the graft sits 5 to 8 cm above the soil, and spread the roots.
- Fill, firm gently with your hands and water until it drains out.
- Cut the main stem back to about 75 cm to 1 m above soil to start a low, open shape.
- Keep the pot in full sun and water only when the top few cm dry until leaves open in March.
Pot size and soil mix
The RHS advises a pot or half barrel at least 50 cm wide and deep with a loam based compost. Our equivalent: two parts garden soil, one part compost, one part coarse sand, explained in the potting mix guide. Plums dislike waterlogged winters, so drainage holes must be generous.
Watering by season
- March to May: flowering and fruit swelling. Keep evenly moist; dry spells split or drop fruit.
- June, 45°C: daily in pots. Shade the pot itself, and paint the trunk with diluted white lime or water based white paint to stop bark sunscald.
- Monsoon: water only when dry; never leave water standing.
- December to January: leafless and chilling; a light watering every ten days. Frost nights do it no harm; frost on open flowers in February does.
Feeding and pruning
Feed compost in February. The RHS suggests a high potassium organic feed every two weeks from spring to late summer for pots; wood ash in small amounts or a potassium rich NPK does the same job. Prune in spring after buds open for young trees, and in summer after harvest for older ones, on a dry day. Pruning in the leafless season invites silver leaf and bacterial canker.
Thin early, eat bigger plums
A young plum often sets far more fruit than it can carry, then drops half in May or snaps a branch. In April, when fruits are pea to marble size, thin them to one every 5 to 8 cm along the branch, as the RHS recommends. It feels wasteful. The remaining fruit grows larger and sweeter, and next year’s flowering stays steady.
Why is my plum tree not fruiting?
The top reasons: the variety needs more chill than your winter gives; it is a self infertile variety without a partner (the RHS notes many plums are self fertile but not all; ask the nursery); the tree is still young; or late frost and dry heat killed the flowers.
Pests, diseases and yellow leaves
| Sign | Cause | First response |
|---|---|---|
| Curled leaves with tiny insects | Plum aphids | Hose off, soap spray, encourage ladybirds |
| Fruit with a pink caterpillar inside | Plum moth or fruit borer | Bin damaged fruit, clear windfalls |
| Fruit rots on the tree | Brown rot | Remove all rotting fruit, thin for airflow |
| Silvery leaves, dying branch | Silver leaf | Cut back to healthy wood in summer |
| Yellow leaves in a wet pot | Root stress | Improve drainage |
| Yellow leaves in August | Heat stress or early autumn | Normal for a stone fruit late in the season |
How do you know a plum is ripe?
Full colour, a faint bloom on the skin, a slight give near the stalk and a sweet smell. Taste one before picking the lot.
Plum stones contain compounds that can release cyanide when crushed, so do not let children crack and eat the kernels; our stone fruit kernel article explains why. If you use any chemical spray, read the full label, wear gloves and a mask, keep children and pets away, and respect the days to harvest. A half barrel of wet soil is heavy; check the roof.
Grow it or skip it?
Plant it in the hills, Islamabad and Peshawar. In Lahore and Delhi it is a maybe that depends entirely on buying a genuinely low chill variety. Skip it in Karachi. While you wait for the first crop, quick wins from our first five plants guide keep the roof productive.
Plum growing questions
How to grow plum at home?
Choose a grafted plum suited to your winter chill, plant it bare root in December to February in a big drained pot or sunny bed, water steadily in spring, thin fruit and prune only in spring or summer.
Can plum trees be grown in pots?
Yes, a compact variety on a dwarfing rootstock grows well in a pot at least 50 cm wide and deep. Repot every few years.
Can aloo bukhara grow in Lahore or Karachi?
Low chill plums can fruit in Lahore with care. Karachi winters are usually too warm for reliable flowering.
What is the best time to plant plum in Pakistan?
Mid December to mid February while the tree is leafless. In the hills, plant once the ground is workable in late winter.
Can I grow a plum tree from a seed?
It can sprout after a cold spell, but the tree will not match the parent and takes longer to fruit. Use it as a rootstock or buy grafted.
Does a plum tree need another tree to pollinate?
Some varieties fruit alone and some need a partner that flowers at the same time. Ask the nursery before buying.
Why are my plum fruits falling before ripening?
Usually dry soil during fruit swelling, too heavy a crop, or pests. Water evenly and thin fruits early.
When should I prune a plum tree?
Spring after buds open for young trees, summer after harvest for established ones. Avoid winter pruning because of silver leaf.