Turkey & Whitetail Plum Thicket (11 Plants) | Spring 2027

Name: Turkey & Whitetail Plum Thicket (11 Plants) | Spring 2027
Brand: Montana Fruit Trees
Price: 299.99 USD
Availability: InStock

$299.99 $344.96 13% Off

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Ripening

Will it finish before your first hard freeze?

Check it on the Ripening Map (opens in a new tab)

A plum and cherry thicket for turkeys and whitetail: fruit in late summer and thick cover to hide in the rest of the year. Native American plum, Prairie Red plum, chokecherry and Nanking cherry.

What you get	11 plants: Native American Plum (3), Prairie Red Plum (2, 3-5 ft.), Chokecherry (3, 3-5 ft.), Nanking Cherry (3, 2-3 ft.). Bare root, shipped or picked up in Missoula in spring 2027, roots wrapped in moist sawdust. Guaranteed to bud out.
Hardy to	Zone 2 (winters to about -50°F). Check your spot with our cold hardiness calculator.
Why these	NWTF counts chokecherry as native soft mast for Merriam's turkeys, and leftover plums are winter food for turkeys. NRCS calls plum twigs and foliage highly preferred browse for whitetail and mule deer, and plum thickets give wildlife valuable protective shelter. Nanking cherry is deer browse and songbird fruit.
Fruit timing	Plums ripen Aug to Sept. Chokecherries ripen in late summer.
Pollination	The native plum seedlings are all different genetically, so they pollenize each other and the Prairie Red. Plant the three Nankings together so they pollenize each other.

Keep livestock away from chokecherry. The leaves, bark, stems and pits are toxic to livestock, especially cattle and sheep, and wilted leaves are the worst.

Protect Them

Deer, elk and moose browse young plants hard, and bucks rub trunks in fall. Cage each tree until it's out of reach: a welded-wire cage about 5 ft. tall and 3 ft. across works for deer. Where elk come through, MSU recommends an 8 ft. fence with a top rail. Trunk tubes alone won't stop rubs. Water with drip the first couple of summers.

Bear country: fruit draws black bears and grizzlies. Plant well away from houses and outbuildings, and use electric fence where bears are around.

Is Planting This Baiting?

Growing plants is habitat work. Rules on fruit or nuts you pick, move or pile up vary by state, so check your state's hunting regs before you hunt over it.

For the full how-to (why these plants work, spacing, protection and timing), read our wild turkey planting guide.

See our other wildlife bundles on the wildlife orchard bundles page.

Photos: wild turkeys by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (public domain); American plum by Matt Lavin (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.