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[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Yes the Euro plums can be slow to bear and many varieties seem to set poorly on cool wet springs like the one we had this year.  Only Castleton consistently gave me good set on several different sites this season (I haven't checked all sites yet).  When the Euro plums were in bloom it was warm and they were well tended by pollinators so I'm assuming it was the cool weather that followed petal fall that limited fruit set.  The Japs, for the most part, did fine except for the elusive Elephant Heart.  They haven't been hurt by late frosts for several years here so they've been more reliable lately than the Euros.

 

I have found that Citation root stock makes the Euros as precocious as Japs here- bearing good crops in about 3 years (maybe 4).  I have only grown a few Euros on this root stock however.

 

As I've said here before, you can help plums bear early by eliminating the most vigorous  branches, removing all that exceed about a third of the diameter of the trunk at their point of connection  creates a less vigorous earlier fruiting tree- whether it's an apple like Fuji that just wants to grow too much wood or most any plum.  You can also accelerate flowering by pulling branches beneath horizontal.