Cambridge Gage
A gage rather than a plum: smaller, greener and far better flavoured, at the cost of reliability. The erratic cropping gages are known for is partly the partial self-fertility recorded here.
A cultivar of Plum. Everything on this page is about the cultivar; how to grow the species is on the plant page, and how big the tree gets is on the rootstock page.
Names and origin
- Also sold as
- Cambridge Greengage
Pollination
What this cultivar needs before it will set a crop.
- Self-fertility
- Partly self-fertile
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum pollination
Checked 2026-08-13
- Partner
- Crops better with a partner
Sourced guidanceDepends on conditionshigh confidence
Applies when: Crops alone but lightly and unpredictably. A compatible partner in an overlapping group makes the difference between an occasional crop and a dependable one — which is the usual complaint about gages.
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum pollination
Checked 2026-08-13
- Flowering group
- 4 on the plum scale
source
Sourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum pollination groups
Checked 2026-08-13
- Ploidy
- diploid
source
Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence
- NIAB — National Institute of Agricultural Botany: Cultivar ploidy records
Checked 2026-08-13
- Partners needed
- one
Partners for Cambridge Gage, from the 11 plum cultivars GrowingHQ holds
Computed by the pollination engine from the flowering groups, ploidy and recorded pairings on each record — not a hand-written list. The scope is exactly what the heading says: these are the answers that exist in this catalogue, not the answers that exist.
| Cultivar | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Tit | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 3 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Czar | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 3 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Jubilee | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 3 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Marjorie's Seedling | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 5 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Merryweather Damson | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 4 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Opal | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 3 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Oullins Gage | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 4 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Pershore | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 3 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
| Victoria | compatible | Both flower at overlapping times (groups 3 and 4) and both produce viable pollen. |
1 further cultivar returns no verdict, because a flowering group or an incompatibility group is not recorded on one side. The engine reports that rather than assuming a value: Shropshire Prune.
The fruit
- Season
- Mid-season
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum cultivars — season
Checked 2026-08-13
- Use
- Eating
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum cultivars — use
Checked 2026-08-13
- Keeping
- Eat within days
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum cultivars — storage
Checked 2026-08-13
The plant
- Vigour
- Average vigour
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum cultivars — vigour
Checked 2026-08-13
- Habit
- Spreading
source
Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum cultivars — habit
Checked 2026-08-13
- Cropping
- Tends to biennial bearing
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Plum cultivars — cropping
Checked 2026-08-13
A barren year may be normal here
This cultivar tends to crop heavily one year and lightly the next. A poor year following a heavy one is the habit rather than a fault, and thinning the fruit in the heavy year is the usual way to even it out.
What it is prone to
Cultivar behaviour, not a diagnosis. Every level here is relative to other cultivars of the same species.
| Problem | This cultivar | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Brown rot | SusceptiblesourceSourced guidancemoderate confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | Reported as prone to this. Expect to manage it. |
On each rootstock
The size of the tree comes from the rootstock. What the cultivar contributes is a direction, in words — GrowingHQ does not multiply the range by a vigour factor, because no source supports the multiplier and the resulting number would look far more precise than the inputs are.
| Rootstock | Height | With this cultivar |
|---|---|---|
| Pixy | 250–300 cmsourceSourced guidancehigh confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | Cambridge Gage is of average vigour, so the rootstock's range applies as published. |
| St Julien A | 350–450 cmsourceSourced guidancehigh confidence
Checked 2026-08-13 | Cambridge Gage is of average vigour, so the rootstock's range applies as published. |
Full profiles for each of these are on the rootstock page.
Cultivar record reviewed 2026-08-13.